A crowd of onlookers surrounded Shipyard Park’s gazebo at 10:00 am on Saturday, July 18 as Mattapoisett town leaders recited the Declaration of Independence during Harbor Days. Hosted by the Mattapoisett Public Library, Museum, and Lions Club, the reading commemorated the 250th anniversary of the first reading of the Declaration in Massachusetts, which was delivered by Colonel Thomas Crafts from the balcony of the State House.
Lee Heald, the event’s organizer and a board member at the Mattapoisett Museum, said it was “fundamentally important” to connect attendees with the words, beliefs, and struggles of the Founding Fathers in a setting that reflected that which the citizens of Mattapoisett and Massachusetts would’ve experienced in 1776. Heald said, “The Declaration was really meant to be read out loud, it was meant to be discussed, it was meant to be heard… I think that public history events that allow people to participate are really important to us.”
To read the declaration, Heald selected Mark Silvia, the Tri-Town’s State Representative, Jenny Martin, Director of the Mattapoisett Free Public Library, Connor Gaudet, Curator and Administrator of the Mattapoisett Museum, and Frances Feliz-Kearns, member of the Mattapoisett Select Board, School Committee, and Friends of the Library. Heald explained that she wanted local leaders to be the ones delivering the speech, “in our town of Mattapoisett, those are really some of the civic voices that we count on, and I thought they did a fabulous job.”
Kearns, who opened the reading, said, “I felt the words were very impactful and still have a lot of meaning today.” She added, “There’s a lot that we need to consider about the things going on today with our current government, and consider those with the Declaration of Independence, and make sure that we’re living up to the ideals of what started this country.”
Mattapoisett 250
By Zakary Sarkarati