(fife-and-drum music)
Miss America and I are going to tell you a little bit of a story of the Declaration of
Independence.
We’re going to need your help.
Today is all about Let’s Read!
Let’s Move!
It is a program that is sponsored by the Department of Education and they have asked if they could
launch their big summer reading program here at the Archives.
After we wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence, we had to tell everybody
about it.
Tell everyone!
So everyone stand up.
We began the day where I taught the children about the Declaration of Independence, which
is of course, represented right behind me.
And of course the real declaration is kept here, at the National Archives, where I come
every year for the Fourth of July.
Been doing that for a number of years now, although not all 272 of my life.
Liberty!
Oh you can be louder than that.
I heard you earlier, I know you can be.
Pretend like you’re complaining about something.
Pretend like you think you don’t have enough liberty.
Pretend like you want to fight for more liberty.
That’s how loud you wanna say it so when I say it, Sayir holds it up and you yell it
as loud as you can.
Are you ready?
Liberty.
Liberty!
Oh, that’s much better.
After I taught them about the Declaration of Independence with some help from Miss America,
then Miss America and I were joined by the Secretary of Education and the Archivist of
the United States and they helped to read a story about the Declaration of Independence
to the children, and then all of us got together to answer questions.
The British marched from Boston, the farmers didn’t run.
In Lexington and Concord, the fighting was begun.
In seventeen-hundred and seventy-six, excitement filled the air, but what the colonists needed
was a statement to declare.
Who here likes to eat, raise your hand!
Who likes good food?
I love good food.
And I don’t say this lightly, we have one of the best chefs in the world right here,
so please give Chef José Andrés a big round of applause.
American forces continued to fight, George Washington was the chief, through heat and
cold they won the war, and felt a great relief, whew!
(fife-and-drum music)
As Miss America, we work a lot with the Department of Education and this has just been a great
initiative that they’ve pioneered, so Lets Read Let’s Move is just a great way for
Miss America to get involved with kids and promote a healthy living lifestyle, especially
throughout the summertime, so it’s really really important that I be here and it’s
so much fun to be here with the kids.
The Let’s Move campaign began almost after Mrs. Obama arrived to the White House.
One day she did something very bold.
She kind of summoned hundreds of chefs on the White House lawn and she had a message.
She said “I need all of the chefs of America to get involved.”
And quite frankly that’s what we did.
So I think that the Let’s move campaign has been great on sending the right message
that if we want children better-educated, they have to be eating the right things and
they need to exercise at the same time.
And today we are serving gazpacho, which is a very good, cold tomato soup that even came
from Spain, already the recipe was printed in America over 200 years ago.
So today, gazpacho for everyone at the National Archives.
1, 2, 3, tomato!
The combination of studying hard, exercising well and eating right is a combination that
meant a lot to me throughout my life.
I believe that a strong body makes the mind strong.
It’s a great way to introduce young children to the purpose of the National Archives.
They can come here, they can learn, they can learn about themselves, learn about others
and at the same time they also learn about it’s important to move and exercise your
body because you can’t read and learn if you’re not feeling very good or healthy.
My personal connection is being Miss America, you know we’re all about education initiatives
and STEM initiatives and encouraging young people to pursue their dreams and maybe pursue
career paths that we can encourage so I get to maybe inspire that little creativity in
a little person, in a little soul, so hopefully that happened today.
Happy Birthday Dear America, Happy Birthday To You!!