{"id":233765,"date":"2026-07-02T14:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/233765\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T14:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:08:11","slug":"250-people-form-red-white-and-blue-living-liberty-bell-at-independence-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/233765\/","title":{"rendered":"250 people form red, white and blue \u2018living Liberty Bell\u2019 at Independence Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Fourth of July celebrations kicked into high gear (and high heat<\/a>) on Thursday. The day of festivities started with the creation of a \u201cliving Liberty Bell.\u201d <\/p>\n

On the lawn at Independence Mall, 250 people formed the shape of one of the city\u2019s most iconic symbols, the Liberty Bell.<\/p>\n

Those who formed the outline of the bell wore white T-shirts, including Miss America and all 53 of this year\u2019s Miss America delegates. The top of the bell and the crack featured people in blue, and volunteers in red filled in the rest. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir T-shirt actually says, \u2018I was a part of the human Liberty Bell on July 2, 2026,\u201d said Amy Needle, president and CEO of Historic Philadelphia, which helped organize the event. <\/p>\n

\"\"\/ Visit Philadelphia<\/p>\n

Amy Mitchell was thrilled to don a red tee in the lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even put it into words,\u201d she said. \u201cGrowing up here, going on the field trips to the Betsy Ross House as kids, we really didn\u2019t appreciate it then as children. But now as an adult, all the history and culture that\u2019s here in Philly, it\u2019s something amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles Updike, from Levittown, is a Phambassador for the 250th, one of many volunteers who are taking part in such events to promote the city. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great,\u201d he said. \u201cI have some memories of 1976 [the bicentennial]; I was very young. But it\u2019s great to be part of all that\u2019s going on all weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Philly\u2019s July 4th concert expected to last nearly 8 hours, draw 300,000 people<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Rev. Carolyn Cavaness with Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church helped make up the blue portion of the bell. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis exercise of bringing us together this morning \u2026 [shows] how we\u2019re a great mosaic, a great textile, a great reflection of who America is and should endeavor to be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A drone captured photos and video of the living bell from above, displaying a real, lasting image of Philly celebrating America\u2019s 250th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Fourth of July celebrations kicked into high gear (and high heat) on Thursday. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4000,94,58220,75523,555,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-233765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america-250","tag-history","tag-independence-day","tag-july-fourth","tag-liberty-bell","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}