CORTLAND — Historical societies and other community groups gained a better idea of what to expect from an upcoming major celebration, thanks to members of two of the county’s biggest advocates.

Representatives from groups across Trumbull County — like Mecca and Howland’s Historical Societies — listened and suggested ideas as Beth Kotwis Carmichael, CEO of the Trumbull County Tourism Bureau, and Meghan Reed, executive director of the Trumbull County Historical Society, hosted a 45-minute meeting Wednesday at the county’s agricultural and family education center regarding the Ohio Commission for the U.S. Semiquincentennial America 250-Ohio celebration.

The Ohio legislature and Gov. Mike DeWine created the America 250-Ohio initiative in 2021 to plan, encourage, develop and coordinate the commemoration of the country’s 250th anniversary and the state’s integral role in it, as well as the role of its people in the country’s past, present and future.

Reed explained that the main goal of the meeting was to communicate the projects they’ve been working on for America-250, noting that many people in the room have participated in the planning meetings they’ve hosted for the past year or so.

Reed said they were trying to narrow the list of projects down after the county commissioners reached out to her and Carmichael to get a concrete list of their county-wide events.

She added that although the county’s historical society is committed to certain events, she didn’t want them to think individual groups couldn’t host their own.

Reed said they’ve been working on an opportunity for communities to showcase their artifacts that have survived the test of time in the form of a traveling exhibit, in collaboration with Ashtabula and Columbiana counties.

“We are working on a form to send out to each of the groups that have collections that have artifacts that they preserve, and will be asking all of you — if you want to participate — to send us two artifacts that you think would be a good fit for that exhibit,” she said. “Our planning committee will take a look at which artifacts have been submitted and start to formulate them in a traveling event from those.”

Reed said there will be some guidelines the societies will have to follow, as they won’t accept some items like pianos, but expressed hope they’d take a thoughtful look at their collections. She said the exhibit will travel for three months across the counties.

Martha Yoder, a regent for the Mary Chesney Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR), pointed out the need to remember the suffrage movement, after a lengthy discussion about the communities already involved and known events going on for the celebration.

“Even though we’re not a historical society, we do have stuff; one of the things we have is a chapter flag in the suffragette colors,” Yoder said. “I definitely think that when we’re talking about Trumbull County, we need to emphasize our part of the suffragette.”

Carmichael said after the meeting that she was pleased with the turnout, noting they had a “healthy variety” from across the county, which was really good.

“There’s so much going on with communities and historical societies and groups that we just wanted to get out ahead of this and just raise a little bit of awareness that this is happening in 2026,” Carmichael said. “If they want to participate, we would love that participation, and we would love to market that.”