To celebrate Independence Day, the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County in cooperation with Amity Township, the Friends of Hopewell Furnace and the Society of Pennsylvania Archaeology John Shrader Chapter 21 will host a reading of the Declaration of Independence accompanied by traditional patriotic songs and other music. The program will be staged on the porch of the 18th-century White Horse Inn at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 2. Admission to the event is free. People are encouraged to bring a blanket or lawn chair for seating.

The nation's independence from Great Britain was officially first declared in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776, when the Continental Congress approved a resolution submitted by delegate Richard Henry Lee. The reading at the White Horse Inn will mark the date of America's 247th birthday.

The program will feature Berks Opera Company's Francine Black and Isabelle Stetka providing patriotic songs. Christine Emmert, who will read from the Declaration, is a writer, actress, director and educator. Her work has been read and performed throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdog. She recently launched her novella "Dreaming of Storms" a year after the release of her film of the one-woman play about women of Hopewell through the Friends of Hopewell Furnace. Her prose has been available on Amazon over the last 10 years. This summer, she will perform with her husband, Richard, in "Love Letters" at the Helena Avenue Theater in Montana.

Edie Shean-Hammond, who will provide interpretive comments, launched a reading of the Declaration at Hopewell Furnace while superintendent in 2011. According to Shean-Hammond, the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Berks County was on July 8, 1776. The document was read publicly in villages throughout the area.

The WHite Horse Inn is located in historic Morlatton Village, 31 Old Philadelphia Pike, Douglassville.