Spirit of Freedom Tour

In 1988 this nation celebrated the Bicentennial of its independence won and individual freedoms protected. The instruments fashioned by the founders of this nation to protect those freedoms and to defend its citizens were the Constitution of the United States and The Bill of Rights.

While 1988 was an important milestone in our nation’s history, the world of today requires that our children and our children’s children understand the sacrifices of our forefathers and the significance those documents play in protecting the freedoms of all Americans. This nation’s future is protected by the knowledge of its birth.

Below you will find a brief examination of The Spirit of Freedom National Exposition Tour and the Constitutional Plaque Program, which are critically important American Heritage educational programs.

The youth of America need to discern the struggle that was requisite to our gaining independence and paramount to understanding the principles thereby imbedded into their Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Former Chief Justice of the United States, Warren Burger, in his capacity as Chairman of the Bicentennial Commission, mandated that two bicentennial monuments be sculpted: the United States Presidency Monument and the Monument to the American Constitution. The Constitution monument was dedicated by President Reagan at Independence Hall on September 17, 1987 and both monuments received official National monument status in October of 1989. The commission further realized its mission by engaging the same renowned artist to create, accurate in every detail replicas of the American Constitution and Bill of Rights pages to be etched onto bronze plaques for placement in public buildings.

The Spirit of Freedom National Exposition Tour has been conceived and designed with the conviction that Americans and American businesses have a significant interest in all children being introduced to the experience of toil and sacrifice by American colonists to secure the freedoms they enjoy. Freedoms protected by The Constitution and Bill of Rights. While the tour is designed to present these issues in an exciting and interactive manner to communities throughout America, the Constitutional Plaque Program is intended to leave these historical documents of our Democracy in America’s educational institutions.
The 75,000 square foot portable exposition center features four atrium halls converging into a center rotunda. This dynamic design supports the application of a large 3,600 square foot Constitutional Bicentennial Monument and Constitutional plaque display area with four expansive presentation halls. The atriums accommodate The Patriot Cinema, an 18 minute inspiring movie about the period leading up to the Declaration of Independence, The Independence Theater, a 20 minute inter-active live presentation that chronicles Washington’s massive effort for his troops, the common soldier’s frantic struggle for survival at Valley Forge, and the Constitutional Congress’s moral and financial dilemmas, and Archives and Memorabilia Hall, where artifacts from the National Archives and other collections are displayed and discussed by historical tour guides such as Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin.

Advance teams visit each community during the months preceding the exposition’s arrival. A carefully designed educational outreach program is presented in each participating school and fund raising programs are established to secure funds from the private sector to permanently place the five bronze plaques of the Constitution and Bill of Rights into their school.

This extremely abbreviated explanation of the project is significantly enhanced with collateral material that is available. Enclosed are pictures of the monuments and the bronze plaques. With next year rapidly approaching we all realize that time is of the essence. We anticipate replacing the eight-ton Constitutional Monument, currently on loan at the Reagan Library with the twenty-seven ton Presidential monument early in 2005. This will be a great media event.

I will be in touch with you shortly to further discuss this project and answer questions you may have.