During last Tuesday’s Charlotte County Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation Representative Myra Trent announced plans to construct a 5,100-square-foot multipurpose center on the property of Red Hill.

Red Hill is a very important educational tool in the Charlotte County community, and I believe the new center will open up new opportunities to better serve the students and individuals within the county.

As a Charlotte County native, I attended Eureka Elementary School many years ago. One of the highlights throughout my educational career at the primary level was embarking on the various field trips that coincided with the lessons we learned in class.

Although I was genuinely excited to explore living history, I guess you could say I was equally excited to get a free day out of class as well.

However, one of the field trips I remember taking was to Red Hill. At that age, I wasn’t quite familiar with Patrick Henry and all of the notable accomplishments he made throughout history.

But, I certainly remembered his popular “give me liberty or give me death speech” and I was excited to visit a place in the county with such notable history.

Luckily, we were able to take our trip without any weather distractions that year and I gained a new outlook about the history right in our own backyard.

Many students have not been quite as fortunate over the years since most of the activities at Red Hill occur outdoors and the weather has forced cancellations from time to time.

I believe the new center will help to combat this and provide a centralized location to display much of our history while beating the elements.

Additionally, supervisors, during their meeting, said they would include $2,500 in the proposed 2017-18 fiscal year budget to support the construction of the new facility at Red Hill.

I commend supervisors and Red Hill for supporting the efforts to keep history alive.

Italia Gregory is the community editor of The Charlotte Gazette. Her email address is Italia.Gregory@TheCharlotteGazette.com