FREEDOM SHRINE

The Free­dom Shrine is an impres­sive, per­ma­nent­ly mount­ed col­lec­tion of 30 of the most impor­tant and his­toric Amer­i­can doc­u­ments, includ­ing the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence, the Con­sti­tu­tion of the Unit­ed States, and the Get­tys­burg Address. They show our nation’s youth the strength and courage of their fore­fa­thers by allow­ing them to read, with their own eyes, the immor­tal words of inspired Amer­i­cans who so deci­sive­ly changed the course of his­to­ry.

Devel­oped by the Nation­al Exchange Club, the Free­dom Shrine orig­i­nat­ed from the Free­dom Train that toured the nation in 1947 car­ry­ing an exhib­it of his­toric doc­u­ments. The pur­pose of the Free­dom Shrine is twofold. It puts before young Amer­i­cans proof that the free­dom and great­ness we enjoy today were not pur­chased eas­i­ly and reminds them that these gifts must be cher­ished and pro­tect­ed. Painstak­ing­ly researched to guar­an­tee absolute authen­tic­i­ty, the 28 his­tor­i­cal Amer­i­can doc­u­ments that com­prise the Shrine were care­ful­ly cho­sen to exem­pli­fy the begin­nings of our nation and those sub­se­quent turn­ing points of impor­tance which shaped our nation­al char­ac­ter and emi­nence. The doc­u­ments of the Shrine, although culled from the past, rep­re­sent foun­da­tion stones which per­mit the present, as we know it, to exist and the future, as we dream it, to be attain­able.

The Shrine is a dis­play of his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments pho­to­graph­i­cal­ly repro­duced from the orig­i­nals and per­ma­nent­ly lam­i­nat­ed to indi­vid­ual non-warp­ing plaques. The Rich­mond Hill Exchange Club has donat­ed a Free­dom Shrine to all Bryan Coun­ty schools in Rich­mond Hill along with one at the Bryan Coun­ty Admin­is­tra­tion Build­ing.