I am just old enough to remember watching the tall ships sail down the Hudson River on Independence Day in 1976. My parents hosted a huge party for their friends and family to look out from the high windows of our apartment on Riverside Park and the river beyond. I alternated between eating slices from an enormous six-foot hoagie my parents had ordered and watching ship after ship sail by. My memory mixes up the sight of sails and the taste of salami.

I remember a spectacle, and I remember a host of people coming together to enjoy it. I remember the small, personal delight of racing from the dining room table with the hoagie to the window and back again. I remember the ships, proceeding by stately fathoms, with the Palisades of New Jersey behind. I remember my country’s 200th birthday—not as a solemn public event, but as something bound up with the happiness of family and friends, and with the individual joy of a small boy shuttling from gulping food to gaping at the masted vessels out of a storybook.

We have been too slow off the mark in preparing to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. It didn’t help that too many people in positions of power were at best indifferent to our country and have procrastinated celebrating its birth. Now we have leaders who love our country and want to hold a dazzling party for America in 2026.

America250 is the bipartisan nonprofit dedicated to getting individuals and organizations across the country to make our celebration great. They have a host of partners, ranging from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the Daughters of the American Revolution to Habitat for Humanity.

I want America250 to succeed because I want a new generation of boys and girls to have such memories.

They promoted the Grand Military Parade in Washington, D.C. that took place last weekend that celebrated the 250th anniversary of the United States Army. I’m old enough to remember the Tall Ships of 1976, but not the last great military parade in New York—that was in 1946, and a bit before my time. I’ve surely enjoyed seeing policemen and Junior ROTC in local July 4 parades in Brooklyn, and I’d love to see a big version for the nation.

There’s a whole calendar of events we all can celebrate before and after July 4, 1776, itself—you can read about many of them in the National Association of Scholars’ series of essays commemorating the American Revolution. America250 is about celebrating all the years leading up to our independence, and the battlefield fight for liberty after July 4 as well. We’re going to celebrate every American who fought for liberty—and died for liberty—from Lexington to Yorktown, and not just those who signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in the hot summer of 1776.

Americans from every state are figuring out their own way to celebrate the 250th anniversary. It isn’t just somebody else’s responsibility for planning our country’s birthday party—it’s the responsibility of all Americans.

You should get in touch with America250, and every organization you’re involved with. We’re starting our party planning late, so we need to crowdsource it and make up for planning time with the can-do American spirit.

George Washington thought of his public service as a solemn duty. We, his posterity, have a more joyful duty to celebrate and commemorate what he and all the other Americans of 1776 did to win us our independence. We can combine happiness with gratitude for that truly greatest generation, which won us the freedom to pursue our happiness.

What would George M. Cohan do?—sing “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.” What would Andy Hardy do?—jump to his feet and yell, “Hey, kids, let’s put on a show!” So let’s join with America 250 and put on a Yankee Doodle of a show.