WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Hillsdale All-American Hometown Celebration

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

Diane Philipp, Vice President for Student Affairs at Hillsdale College, joins Nicole Sighiartau on WRFH to preview the upcoming All-American Hometown Celebration, April 23-25. Hillsdale College's iconic campus becomes the site of a three-day red, white, and blue celebration unlike anything our community has seen. From live entertainment and interactive history exhibits to family activities and a petting zoo, this is a hometown celebration worthy of America's 250th birthday.

This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Nicole Seguir Tau, and with me today is Diane Phillips, the vice president for student affairs here at Hillsdale College. Today, Diane is going to share some information about the upcoming Hillsdale All-American hometown celebration. Welcome, Diane. Thank you, Nicole. I'm happy to be here. In a nutshell, what is this event and what is its purpose? Well, it's a celebration of America's birthday, 250. this year and we decided we wanted to host something on campus and our president wanted to do it when the students were here so we couldn't do it on the 4th of July but we decided to do it towards the end of the semester when the weather was better and also as our our seniors are preparing to commence

we wanted to make sure they were included so it's coming up soon April 23rd 24th and 25th What times will the events be taking place? And what is the general gist of this event? Is it casual? Are lots of people invited or is it kept more to students? Everyone's invited. Pretty much everything's free, which is a good thing for our community. We do have food trucks. So if you want food, you'll have to purchase your own food. But the focus of it is on the freedom. 250 trucks that are coming from Washington, D.C. In 1976, they had freedom trains, and I remember those. But the train system, I think, in America isn't the same as it used to be, and it doesn't hit all the towns, of course, so they decided to create these freedom trucks. There's six of them. And to get into the reason why, a little bit why it's heading this way to our town, is that Matt Spal Our VP of Operations in Washington, D.C., helped write the text for the inside of the truck.

So the historical text that's in there came out of our Kirby Center via Matt Spalding. So we created this festival around that truck coming. She's the focus of the day. It's open to the public from 1230 to 5 on Thursday and Friday. And what can be found inside of this truck outside of text? Are there like hands-on experiences for younger children? Is it primarily looking at documents? Are there lots of maybe artifacts or pictures in the truck?

It's a little bit of everything. I have not been in the truck. But if you go on their website, you can see a piece of it. Freedom 250 and it'll come up. There are interactive displays. there's a lot of really neat things for children. And then if the older people want to spend longer time in there, there's a lot for them to read and study.

It's a true museum. It's quite large. It's the size of a semi-truck. And so each side pops out. And people will spend anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes in there, I'm told. So we're trying to manage the traffic and trying to figure out, you know, how long the lines will be. We have it very organized. We have a lot of volunteers.

and we're very much prepared for a crowd. If everyone comes, we'd love to have everyone come. We have interactive activities for those that are waiting to get onto the truck. A lot of what we would call mini-museums throughout campus. For those that know Hillsdale College's campus, we have Founding Father statues. Most of those people are featured in the truck. So we're going to have founding father freedom walks, basically, statue walks. And we have reenactors.

Most of those are students that will be floating around the quad in front of Central Hall. We have George Washington and Martha. We have James Madison and Dolly Madison. We have Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and Ben Franklin. A few of them are coming as professionals. Actors. So we have hired a few people to come in, specifically Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln and Ben Franklin. They are all able to recite many of the famous speeches of these three gentlemen. And Frederick Douglass, I think, is going to especially be a real, real highlight. So each of them have a tent, and they are standing next to their statues, and everyone should go into those tents and listen to them talk and get photos with them. That's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, really exciting piece that took some time to organize, and there's a lot of volunteer work with that as well. They are all costumed in period costumes. We have a student that's very interested

in going into costume making. She's a history major. She's very bright. And she studied all of our statues and figured out the period of each statue and the clothes that were being worn at the time. So everything is period made. She custom fit. all these clothes. So I think that's especially exciting because it will create an atmosphere kind of going back hopefully 250 years. We also have an American Eagle, a live American Eagle, and he'll be there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We hired two different companies to bring in their Eagles, and they're calling it the Eagle Encounter. These are organizations that really take care of injured animals, but also they'll do a full show. They also have falcons, so they do

falconry shows, but we are just having the eagle. The eagle tent will be open for a certain amount of time because he's only allowed to have four hours of engagement a day. He gets a 15-minute break in between. But you can go in, and the ladies that are holding the eagles have a lot of knowledge about the eagle and the founding of our country with the American Eagle symbol. They tell about that. And of course, you can get a picture taken with the eagle. So that was a highlight, a big highlight, especially for the school children. Another highlight that people are talking about is the fife and drum corps. We hired a professional fife and drum corps. There are three fiefs and fiefers and three drummers. They will be in pears. They will be in

period close. They're very, very good. They will be doing reenactments on the quad in front of Central Hall and a few shows, so you can't miss them. They're kind of loud, and we'll have music piped in, too. So I think the atmosphere is going to be pretty festive and pretty exciting. Hopefully, it takes everybody back 250 years. Where will the truck be on campus? The truck will be in front of Central Hall. So if anyone wants to come, just we will have parking lots available for everyone. Everything will be marked. We will have greeters. There will be a check-in desk. If you're parking further away and you need some assistance, we'll have golf carts driving around. So if you need a little bit of assistance, we will do that as well. We want as many people to come as possible.

The baseball and softball teams have games going on during those days too, so parking will be a little tight, but we have quite a bit of availability. So if you drive around campus, you'll find a spot. And people are welcomed to attend these games as well. Correct. Yep. All that's free as well. Okay. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.

I'm Nicole Segueratow talking to Diane Phillip about the Hillsdale All-American Home. hometown celebration. So it looks like Thursday and Friday have more limited events, but it looks like Saturday is kind of like the grand finale with everything going on. So that Fife and drum performance that you mentioned will not be going on all three days or is that a Saturday only event? That's a Saturday only event. Correct. And there's also a rodeo going on, a kids Bible camp, and a choral scholars spring concert. And so some of those events are on different days. Do you have more information on that?

We partnered with the city. Certain businesses in the community were pretty fired up about this. And they contributed to putting on this very professional rodeo. It's on Friday evening. That's also free. It's first come first serve. They'll have food trucks there as well. but I would suggest you get in line early.

The grandstands will be filled. These are real cowboys, and they're bringing in a really good crew. So there are three businesses that are sponsoring this group, and I think it's going to be quite a festivity down there. There'll be bull riding and horseback riding. And that'll be 7.30 p.m. on Friday. Friday. Correct.

Yeah. And then on Saturday, there's going to be a small car show downtown, and then the farmer's market will open. They'll have their opening day at the same time as the car show. And with the community pitching in, will there be any maybe special deals with restaurants or businesses downtown encouraging people to go explore the downtown area as well? Yes, they've talked about that. I don't know the specifics about it, but I know the restaurants are on board. Awesome. And then also go. on at the fairgrounds on Friday is a kids Bible camp at 5 p.m. So that might be a good reason to head over to the fairgrounds early to get in line and also have your kids hang out at the Bible camp. Correct. Yep. It'll all be supervised and very organized. So we hope to fill the grandstand as well. And on Friday, if the rodeo maybe isn't your thing, the choral scholar

spring concert is going on. And that's also at 7.30 p.m. And that will be on campus, correct? On campus, correct. And that's also free. So a lot available throughout the entire three days. And we just, we hope everyone can come and enjoy the time with us. We do have kind of an interesting add on. There's a gentleman who's a very fine artist, David Youngman. He works in town. And he is going to paint, oil paint, a beautiful painting of Central Hall on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and people can watch him paint. We have Central Hall being decorated as we speak right now, and he's going to paint a picture that will help us remember this 250th forever. We have American flags hanging from Central Hall, and we don't have an original painting, but he's going to create one

for us and then we'll make copies of that and probably sell them in the bookstore. But I think 100 years from now that painting might be pretty valuable. Absolutely. And going on on Saturday as well, there's an all-American farm petting zoo, touch a truck, and red white and glue crafting. What's going on at those three stations? Yes, we wanted to focus on kind of celebrating America's farmers. both animal farming and agrarian farming. So we have a lady coming in and she's bringing a lot of animals and it's a petting zoo. It's definitely focused for the children, but they can go in her area. She does this professionally and pet these baby animals.

Right next to that tent, we have a craft station, all patriotic crafts, arts and crafts, again, focused for the children. We also have merchandise for sale. The truck crew is bringing 250 merchandise, and then we will have, Hillsdale College will have a Liberty and Learning shop, and that will include a lot of educational materials and handouts and books and some of it's free and some of it's for purchase. But I think there will be some fun swag. You can buy a sweatshirt or a cap.

and that will be going on as well. We also, we didn't mention, we have a replica of the Liberty Bell. We had a donor give Hillsdale College a Liberty Bell, and it's been in storage, and we're going to pull that out, and the Bell gets his own tent, too, in case it rains, so everyone can get in there. It looks quite real, and it will be fun to be able to see the Bell. And we have the story of each of these pieces,

within the tent. So if it does rain a little bit, bring your umbrellas, you can move from tent to tent. And then we have people in those tents, but we also have beautiful posters that will explain what's happening or what is in that tent. For example, the story of the Liberty Bell. There is so much going on this weekend. So what are you most excited for to see or maybe do? Gosh, you know, this is exciting for me because I've lived in Hillsdale my entire life. And I remember 1976 well. And it was almost a turning point for me as a young person to be even more patriotic and feel the patriotism of my country. It was, it was inspiring. So I just hope that, and I mean this sincerely. I hope, especially the children, go away having that, that spirit, you know,

feeling it in their heart that America is a beautiful country and we have a lot to be grateful for. Dr. Arne is behind a lot of this in the sense that he just, he loves our country, he loves our college, and we are inspired, those of us who work here every day by, by his inspiration. And he loves the founding doctrine of the country, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the college was founded on these same principles. We were founded as an abolitionist college, which is why we're excited. Frederick Douglass is coming too. But there's just a story to tell in our community. And I don't know if everyone in the community knows the story. Hillsdale has been brave, not just the college, but the city has been brave for a long,

time on what is what right and especially when it comes to human freedom. So I really hope the kids learn something, that their town is something to cherish in our country, something to cherish, and we're just trying to give them a taste of all that. You kind of touched on my next question, which is why is it important for people to attend this event? And I mean, you already kind of explain that it's just learning the heritage, learning the history. And it sounds like a really fun and interactive way to get involved and to appreciate everything America has to offer, because really this celebration has it all from sporting events to music, rodeos. It looks like military trucks with the touch-a-truck crafts. It just looks like it has everything for whatever

anyone might want to learn more about or experience. Yes, and it's going to be three days of fun. So please come, enjoy it, take it all in, ask questions, you know, buy a hat. So your grandchildren will remember it and you can pass it on. Just take the memories with you and let's join together as a community and celebrate our country. So open to the public Thursday and Friday from 12. 1230 to 5 and then Saturday from 9 to 4. Sounds awesome.

Well, thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing all the information about this event. We hope you go attend the Hillsdale All-American Hometown 250 celebration Thursday and Friday from 1230 to 5 and on Saturday from 9 to 4. I'm Nicole Sigirutau on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Thank you.