VALLEY FORGE, Pa. - Valley Forge Park’s Join the Continental Army program for kids continues to grow in popularity. The program was started in 2006 as a way to get local children to visit Valley Forge and become interested in the American Revolution.
Recruits ages 6 through 12 are mustered-in to the Continental Army by receiving enlistment papers and copies of Continental currency. They then go through some “basic training” to learn how to stand and march like a soldier. The troops are also issued wooden dummy muskets to learn some of the ways Washington’s soldiers would have carried these. The process for loading and firing a musket is also practiced.
“Participants will experience the type of training that Washington’s soldiers went through at Valley Forge 230 years ago,” says program administrator and Park Ranger, Peter Maugle. Programs will be held at 11:00 a.m. on the first Saturday of each month from January 5 through April 5, and also on Presidents’ Day, February 18, at noon.
Attendees are encouraged to return for future programs. “This is the key to the program, as the topics covered will be different each time,” explains Maugle. “Those who participated in the first programs will help to teach and train new recruits, just as Washington's veteran soldiers did.”
The program activities will take place outdoors, so dress accordingly and wear sturdy shoes.
