The event in America\u2019s birthplace featured 1981 Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl quarterback Ron Jaworski, the “Ruthless” podcasters, and Stacy Garrity, the state treasurer and 2026 Republican gubernatorial candidate.<\/p>\n
Joining with Concerned Veterans for America and the LIBRE Initiative, AFP\u2019s “One Small Step” plays off Neil Armstrong\u2019s famous words as it works to build a national movement reconnecting Americans to their history and founding principles and encouraging them to become more civically engaged.<\/p>\n
At the event, AFP President Emily Seidel spoke about why it is important now, on the advent of the U.S.\u2019 250th birthday<\/a>, to launch such a wide-scale effort.<\/p>\n RARE AND ORIGINAL AMERICAN FOUNDING DOCUMENTS TO FLY ON FREEDOM PLANE ACROSS NATION<\/a><\/p>\n The Liberty Bell, originally saved from the British by Lynnport farmer Frederick Leaser, sits in its Philadelphia shrine. (iStock)<\/p>\n “I do think that we do have to have a sense of urgency about defending freedom<\/a> because we’ve been crowing a lot leading up to this year about how people’s pride in America is at an all-time low and that is a huge red flag,” she said.<\/p>\n “People’s belief that they can reach the American dream is declining,” she said. “It’s not a coincidence that those numbers are going down as the size and scope of government is going up \u2014 that loss of agency is really harmful for a free society.”<\/p>\n The “One Small Step<\/a>” initiative will soon move on to other cities, while AFP state chapters will be challenged to take “250,000 Steps for Freedom” and complete 250,000 actions to promote policies that advance the freedom and opportunity voiced by the Founding Fathers.<\/p>\n AMERICA’S 250TH ANNIVERSARY SPARKS TRAVEL RUSH AS EXPERTS ISSUE URGENT BOOKING WARNING<\/a><\/p>\n As the “Ruthless” podcasters discussed at the Philadelphia event, 40 door knocks in the community to campaign or spread the message could account for 40 “actions.”<\/p>\n “For 250 years, freedom and opportunity have defined the American spirit, unleashed prosperity for millions, and led to awe-inspiring innovation that has changed the world,” AFP said in a statement. “Our mission at AFP is to ensure the freedom and opportunity our nation was founded on endures and expands for the next 250 years. That will only be possible with the small but critical steps of millions of people.”<\/p>\n Some of the other marquee events will be held in Springfield, Illinois<\/a> \u2013 home of Abraham Lincoln \u2013 and Washington, D.C., as a way to counter declining pride in what it means to be an American.<\/p>\n TIMES SQUARE BALL GOES RED, WHITE AND BLUE FOR AMERICA’S 250TH BIRTHDAY<\/a><\/p>\n The events are intended to inspire Americans to take action this year and get involved civically 250 years after the Founders did.<\/p>\n Eight-figure digital and TV ad buys will accompany the initiative, telling stories of Americans past and present and highlighting “digital toolkits<\/a>” that every American can take part in to help celebrate founding principles.<\/p>\n “One Small Step is our effort to build\u00a0a long-term national movement celebrating the founding principles that make America so exceptional: liberty, dignity, and opportunity. If we want to change the trajectory of Americans\u2019 pride in this country, we need to remind people of our shared values<\/a> and what it means to be American,” Seidel told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n WASHINGTON MONUMENT TO BECOME \u2018BIRTHDAY CANDLE\u2019 AS US MARKS START OF 250TH YEAR<\/a><\/p>\n “These principles aren\u2019t just part of our past; they are essential to navigating our future. This is not about loving America louder \u2014 it\u2019s about understanding America better. Freedom doesn\u2019t sustain itself. People do.”<\/p>\n Sandra Benitez, executive director of the LIBRE Initiative, which aims to engage Latino Americans in civics, added that Hispanic communities<\/a> understand the promise of America in a “deeply personal way.”<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n “Freedom, opportunity and dignity aren\u2019t abstract concepts; they are the principles that inspired our families to come to America in the first place,” she told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n “One Small Step invites Americans from every background<\/a> to see themselves in the nation\u2019s story \u2014 because that story continues with all of us.”<\/p>\n Charles Creitz is a reporter for\u00a0Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.\u00a0<\/p>\n Charles covers media<\/a>, politics<\/a> and culture for Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! EXCLUSIVE: Limited-government nonprofit Americans for Prosperity kicked off its version…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[57362,28,101,58120,146885,2085,111],"class_list":["post-446995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-america-250","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-faith-personal-freedoms","tag-patriotism","tag-philadelphia","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Liberty](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/liberty-bell-1.jpg\")
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