To celebrate the colonial era in the country’s history, Star-spangled Scholars is educating Jefferson County students a deep, tangible, hands-on knowledge of the founding of the United States.

”This (Star-spangled Scholars program) offers experiential, hands-on learning for kiddos, they can touch it, feel it, smell it, wear it,” organizer and founder, Linda Olson Ferguson said.

The program, founded in the fall of 2013, began incidentally after Ferguson heard about the bicentennial of the national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner. Ferguson immediately began to research this fact, and decided to put together a program that would help educate students across the Denver-Metro area about the fundamentals the nation was founded upon.

”The purpose is to teach lessons from real-life experiences from the founding of our nation to the settling of the West, with the hook being the bicentennial of the Star-spangled Banner,” Ferguson said.

Throughout 2014, Ferguson, along with two Hands on History Colorado historians, Irish Lace and Smoketalker, and representative Steve DeBoer from the Sons of the American Revolution, will speak at area schools and youth programs educating students about the early history of the U.S.

“We want to make that period of time, our history, our ancestry, make this time period feel real and fun for kids,” DeBoer said.

Star-Spangled Scholars works in conjunction with the Arvada Harvest Festival and the Arvada Junior Chamber Foundation to help students learn about the struggles of survival in early Colonial America and the West; the Constitution’s purpose; and the inspiration behind the Star-Spangled Banner. Through the program, students and youth will have the opportunity to see, wear, use, and play with historically correct artifacts such as lanterns, uniforms, tools from Colonial America.

“This is voluntary, and is a supplement to the schools’ and educators’ efforts to make sure kids know how important that aspect of our history was and the aspects our country was founded on,” DeBoer said.

On Mar. 8, organizers of the program are hosting a free Open House for the community to experience aspects of the program and garner interest in the bicentennial celebration. The event will be held 12-5 p.m., at the Arvada Jaycees Hall, 5640 Yukon St., Arvada. For more information on the program, contact Linda Olson Ferguson, 303-523-2971.

“It’s really important for the younger generation to understand what our country was formed to be and understand those roots,” Ferguson said.