The grounds at the Richland County Administration Building soon will feature a monument with replicas of the nation’s most revered documents – the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Richland County Council voted to accept a gift from Foundation Forward, Inc., to receive South Carolina’s first Charters of Freedom Monument. Foundation Forward is a non-profit organization based in Morganton, N.C., that works to give and install the monuments across the country.

Construction on Richland County’s Charters of Freedom Monument begins this month and a dedication ceremony is planned for May 26. No taxpayer dollars will be used for the project. The monument will be located near the flag poles at the County Administration Building on the corner of Hampton and Harden streets.

Businessman Vance Patterson, who owns the Patterson Fan Company in Blythewood, and his wife, Mary Jo, founded the non-profit Foundation Forward to give and install monuments in communities as an educational initiative. They realized many people, especially students, may not have the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., to see the real documents.

“We wanted to find a way to bring the documents to them,” Mary Jo Patterson said.

Vance Patterson presented the concept of installing a monument in Richland County to County Council on July 21, 2015. There are currently three monuments in North Carolina, and one in both Indiana and Illinois.  Foundation Forward plans to install several more monuments across the country in coming months.

For more information, please contact Foundation Forward at 910-508-7776 or email Punruh2015@gmail.com.