June 29. The student leaders that make up the American Battlefield Trust’s 2021-2022 Youth Leadership Team, including a teen from Davidson, recently completed capstone projects that highlight battlefield preservation, education, or visitation.
Through the Youth Leadership Team program, the trust challenges young people to seek out adventure, creativity, an expanded network, and a greater understanding of both the American past and the current efforts to preserve it.
Rory Moran is heading to UNC Chapel Hill to study history and philosophy. Photo provided
Rory Moran, a recent graduate of North Mecklenburg High School in Huntersville, was one of the youth team members.
The capstone project component presents an ideal opportunity for participants to check off each of these boxes while gaining new skills and engaging with their communities. Through the generosity of the Pipkin Charitable Foundation, team members receive a stipend to serve as project seed money.
“Historic preservation, especially at our battlefields, is critical in teaching people of all ages and backgrounds about not only American history — but also about such concepts as sacrifice,” said Moran.
He built a diorama of the 1781 Battle of Guilford Courthouse that reflected real-life accounts from the figures directly involved in the battle. He even hand-painted 500 28mm figures.
Growing up, Moran visited the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park — about a 90-minute drive from his home in Davidson — and became fascinated with the Revolutionary story.
To Moran, historic preservation is a way to honor and remember the sacrifice that American soldiers have made throughout history to preserve our lives, liberty and values.
This fall, he will begin his undergraduate journey at UNC Chapel Hill on an Air Force ROTC scholarship.
There, he plans to encourage people of all backgrounds to appreciate the important role of history. He’ll be majoring in history and philosophy, and minoring in French.
To learn more about the Trust’s Youth Leadership Team, visit www.battlefields.org/youth-
The American Battlefield Trust is dedicated to preserving America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educating the public about what happened there and why it matters today. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization has protected more than 55,000 acres associated with the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War. Learn more at www.battlefields.org.
