New Philadelphia, Ohio - Area museums and educational organizations are uniting again to bring history to life at New Towne Mall.

The T-County Youth Patriot History Rally returns this Saturday from 10 to 4 for six full hours of history-themed activities and entertainment. Event committee member and Dennison Depot spokesman Jacob Masters says this is something they’ve done annually for the last nine years as a fun learning opportunity for area children and their families.

“A lot of times, people always say I can’t make to a museum. I don’t have enough time to go to every museum in the county,” he says. “This is a way to basically go to all of them, and it’s all in one central location. We kind of bring the museums to you.” 

Masters says there will be 30 exhibitors this year offering all sorts of interactive activities throughout the day, including some based on this year’s theme of Dancing Through History.

“If you go to the Schoenbrunn table, you’ll actually get to taste real butter because they’re doing butter churning. If you go to the Historic Fort Laurens table, they actually have the fort that you can take a look at. If you go to the Tuscarawas County Historical Society, they are doing dancing demonstrations, and they’re also doing 1940s dancing demonstrations at the Dennison Depot table,” he says.

The event’s look-alike costume contest will also be returning as a costume parade with children invited to dress up as their favorite historical figures.

“It’s dress up as your favorite character from history, and it doesn’t have to be American history,” he says. “One of my favorites is we actually had a Marie Antoinette one time, and it was awesome.”

The parade starts at 12:30, and everyone who participates will receive a free t-shirt. Masters says they’ll also be doing a scavenger hunt where children can enter to win some great prizes including an iPad Mini, Kindle Fire, and turntable. 

“There is a scavenger hunt that has all 19 actual historical society museums on there, and you have to go to each of those sites and get a stamp from each one,” he says. “Once you get all 19, all you have to do is take it over to the prize table.”

Masters says the drawing will be held at 3 pm, and children do not need to be present in order to win. 

“As long as they write their phone number on the scavenger hunt card, we will call them in the next couple of days and they can come pick their prizes up at the depot,” he says.

The first 500 children to arrive at the event will also get a goodie bag sponsored by First National Bank of Dennison packed with freebies from local businesses. 

STACEY CARMANY, TUSCO TV