VA250 Commission names Carly Fiorina national honorary chairperson of the board
With the celebrations surrounding the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding fast-approaching, the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission named Carly Fiorina Virginia’s national honorary chairperson of the commission’s board.
Fiorina also serves as the chair of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Board of Trustees.
“As a prominent and engaged Virginian, Fiorina will leverage her dedication to the Commonwealth, her business expertise and her ability to help organizations reach their highest potential” in the pursuit of convening and facilitating a Virginia-wide commemoration of the anniversary in 2026, a news release announcing the appointment said.
Fiorina hopes “to highlight as well as discover the many, many stories relating to our founding that happened in Virginia, and also to highlight Virginia’s role in the nation’s founding,” she said in a phone interview. “The truth is, without Virginia, there is no United States. So many important events happened first in Virginia. All of our founding documents were written by Virginians. And so as we celebrate America’s founding, we must celebrate Virginia in all of its diversity.”
In March, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and VA250 hosted the nation’s first event to launch multistate planning efforts for the anniversary in 2026. Held March 10-12, “A Common Cause to All” marked the 250th anniversary of Virginia’s resolution establishing its Committee of Correspondence, a critical moment in the journey that led to America declaring independence in 1776. The committees established communication between the colonies, unifying them under a common cause for the first time.
For Fiorina and the VA250 Commission, it’s a chance to shine a light on the complete story of Virginia’s role in the nation’s founding.
“There are very uplifting parts of our history, there are very difficult parts of our history, and all of our history needs to be shared and revealed and discovered and understood,” she said. “We want this commemoration to be bottoms up, not top down. … Of course, there are signature events that will happen beginning this year and up through 2026, but we want every community across Virginia to play a role in discovering their own stories that were critical to the formation of our country.”
A list of events centered on the upcoming anniversary happening around the state is available at va250.org/localevents, with more events being added. The commission will continue meeting periodically over the next few years to continue to develop plans for more events and activities to help support communities across Virginia commemorate America’s 250th.
Sian Wilkerson, 757-342-6616, sian.wilkerson@pilotonline.com
