I have never been able to walk past a place without wondering about the people who lived there before me. What did they see? What did they stand for? What kept them up at night and got them up in the morning? This curiosity pulls me toward history and the human experience and is what brought me here today.

My name is Ashlee Joly. I am a biology student at Stony Brook University, an EMT, a community volunteer, and someone who believes deeply that every person, every place, and every community has a story worth telling. I am by no means a historian, but I am someone who cares deeply about people, meanings, and the light that gets extinguished when stories go untold.

This summer I have the honor of participating in a Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation grant celebrating the United States Semiquincentennial. Working alongside Bayside Historical Society, I will be exploring the history of Bayside and greater Long Island to uncover the deep, often overlooked connections to the founding of the United States.

On July 4, 2026, the United States will turn 250 years old. Two hundred and fifty years since a group of ordinary people decided that freedom was not a privilege to be granted, but a right worth dying for. Tradesmen closed their shops. Farmers left their fields. Merchants and financiers walked away from their careers. These dreamers had everything to lose yet signed their lives away regardless, knowing full well the danger of touching pen to paper. The document they put their names to did not just declare independence; it trumpeted the importance of democracy, and 250 years later, we are still trying to figure out what that means. That is the part that gets me every time: not the glory, but the courage of it.

Over the coming weeks, I will introduce you to the local people whose names shaped this land. You will meet people who fought for the freedoms we take for granted today, not just on the battlefield but also in moments of ordinary courage that history almost forgot to record. 

I have come to understand that history is not something that happened to other people. It happened here, and it's still happening. History is alive all around us, in every street sign and every building you pass.

Two hundred and fifty years is a long time, and Queens residents were making their mark on our history for more than a century before the nation's founding. Join me in the journey of uncovering the past, celebrating those who fought for our freedoms, and recognizing the tremendous sacrifices made on the home front.