Honoring America’s Roots

As the Nation continues its multi-year commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary, the Ocean County Board of Commissioners joined the Ocean County Cultural and Heritage Commission and the Ocean County Parks and Recreation Department for the annual Countdown to Independence commemoration.

Held Nov. 19 in the Historic Court Room 1 of the Ocean County Courthouse, this year’s program highlighted Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride and the lantern signal from Boston’s Old North Church on April 18, 1775, which was an act that helped prepare the Minutemen for the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first military engagements of the American Revolution.

Ocean County Commissioner Virginia E. Haines, Regent of the Joshua Huddy Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was joined by the Deputy Director of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners Frank Sadeghi, members of the New Jersey Society of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution, students from Toms River High School South, and local historical societies to honor the significance of the “shot heard around the world ” with the opening shots of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The battles marked the start of the American Revolutionary War and represented the first-time colonial force actively resisted regular British government soldiers with military force.

Period music was provided by Forbes Road Frolic, with the New Jersey Fifes and Drums and the First New Jersey Loyalists also in attendance.