When our wig-wearing founding fathers gathered in what was then the Pennsylvania State House to declare their independence from Great Britain, Philadelphia was the backdrop. Two hundred and fifty years later, it’s the center of a national celebration. Philadelphia250 was formed to ring in the Semiquincentennial for all Americans while showcasing the city’s local culture and spirit.
Clayton Thomas WG12 — a Philadelphia250 advisory board member, global technology and product finance lead at Comcast, and proud Philly resident — shared how the organization is uncovering hidden histories, putting new neighborhoods on the map for tourists, and changing how the world views America’s birthplace.
Wharton Magazine: How did you join the organization?
Clayton Thomas: I grew up in the Fitler Square area and through that developed an interest in Philly history. A former colleague once said that Philly has lost more things than most cities have ever had. There’s all this hidden history.
When I heard about Philly250, I reached out through Comcast, one of the original founding sponsors. In 2022, I started in the Leave a Legacy campaign, which was designed to select a couple nonprofits that were going to receive grants around the 250th that could leave a lasting impact. We worked with the Special Olympics and a few others that were selected. Then in 2023, they asked if I’d be interested in joining the board of Philly250. We’ve already started to deliver a lot of programming activities across the city, which will only intensify.
WM: What skill set from your 11 years in leadership positions at Comcast did you tap into on the board?
CT: I started a little bit in the strategy team, but now I’ve been in finance, figuring out the best way to use those funds to generate the most impact. Prior celebrations, especially in 1976, were very isolated to certain areas of the city. The key thing now was they wanted it for the people, by the people. Rather than focus on one neighborhood, there’s 20 business corridors that have been selected across the city.
Through Comcast, we’re sponsoring 250 block parties that are free for the participants and come with organization kits. We’re going to bring the celebration to them. The goal is for every citizen in Philadelphia to know that it’s happening, get excited, and have a chance to participate in it.
WM: America250 was established by Congress in 2016. How does Philly250 work within that ecosystem?
CT: America250 was the officially designated nonprofit to coordinate across all of the national celebrations. And then there’s America250PA, which is at the state level. One example is Bells Across PA; they’re putting Liberty Bells across different cities and neighborhoods. And then Philly250 is the official local Philadelphia nonprofit selected to coordinate the local activities.
Thomas visited the Philadelphia Zoo last month in preparation for its “First-ival” celebration as America’s first zoo on August 8 — part of Philadelphia250’s 52 Weeks of Firsts. The zoo is marking the occasion by installing commemorative “1” sculptures.
WM: How did local, state, and federal levels collaborate?
CT: There’s a ton of coordination. Philadelphia is putting most of its contributions through Philly250 and the Philadelphia Visitor Center. And then the federal government would be sponsoring some of the America250 activities. And then all three reach out to companies like Comcast. So it is a complex matrix of organizations involved, but hopefully with so many, it will just continue to amplify the impact that we’ll see in Philadelphia and then across the state and across the country.
WM: How are you incorporating local history into your programming?
CT: The Welcome America festival is going to be anchored around Independence Hall with events happening around the city. So many museums are also participating. The Please Touch Museum has an amazing exhibit that shows what the Centennial exhibition looked like. Another cool thing is called 52 Weeks of Firsts, every week trying to bring attention to some sort of invention that happened in Philly — for example, the type of pencil that everyone used in school originated in Philly. We view Philadelphia as the showcase city. Others would probably also jockey for that claim, but this is where it all started, with the Declaration of Independence.
WM: What does Philadelphia250 hope that visitors from across the country and the world take away from the programming you’ve developed?
CT: That Philadelphia is much more than just Independence Hall. That’s the focus on creating the local tours and really trying to activate people in other parts of the city.
WM: Thinking back to your time at Wharton, was there an experience or lesson that came in handy during the Philadelphia250 planning?
CT: There’s so much that’s thrown at you with all the different people you meet from all around the world at Wharton. That global mentality is the same mentality that we want to bring to this program, because there’s people from all over the world visiting. Just like in life, it’s very team-based. So you yourself can work hard and try to deliver what you can, but unless you can think about how you activate others, you won’t get so far.
WM: Is there a lesson in looking back at the past 250 years that you hope will carry forward for the next 250?
CT: To me, it again comes back to the power of the people. And when you look at all these neighborhood tours, it’s just a collection of people who decided that they wanted to add something to the world.
Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in how hard things are. But if you look back 100 years ago, people persisted and found ways to overcome a lack of technology and a lack of access to invent things. It’s that Ben Franklin attitude of always looking at something and saying, “How could I make this better? How could I change this? What could I start?” If everyone had that mindset, that would be a fantastic legacy for the program and something that I hope we can all carry forward.
