About |
In 1987, movie icon James Stewart was invited by the Governor of California, President Reagan and Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger through the California Bicentennial Foundation for the US Constitution and Bill of Rights to join with California luminaries including Muhammad Ali, Buzz Aldrin, Mickey Mouse, Bob Hope to help lead the three year Bicentennial celebration of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights to commemorate and educate the public on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the development of the American Dream as it inspired people around the world.
As a result of his experience in witnessing the power of the Hollywood Entertainment Industry in generating public interest in advancing the Constitutional principles of freedom and liberty in pursuing the American Dream, he founded the American Spirit Foundation in 1989 as a non-profit, non-partisan Hollywood based foundation to continue employing entertainment industry resources and talent in developing and supporting projects that galvanized the public to advance those principals.
The Foundation was joined by the father of the modern super-hero, Stan Lee, serving as Chairman, applying his skills in communicating the principles and aspirations of the American Dream expressed through the pop culture mythology of comic book superheroes to three generations of adolescents in 120 countries.
The Foundation focused its efforts on a national public-private project to transform the classroom experience for "at risk" youth in America's schools. "Entertainers for Education" was launched by President and Mrs. Reagan to employ entertainment techniques to engage oblivious students and communicate pedagogies. It was also joined by the Smithsonian, the Armand Hammer Foundation, and the Free Congress Foundation in projects that supported the newly emerging democracy movements in Poland and the former Soviet Union.
The Foundation supported Polish President Lech Walesa's efforts to obtain American support to bring democracy to Poland and it supported Boris Yeltsin's efforts to bring democracy to the new Commonwealth of Independent States, including sending the first American movie, Its A Wonderful Life, dubbed by Moscow University, as the first American movie ever broadcast by television to the Russian people, on their first free Christmas.
In 2013 the Foundation was revitalized under the new leadership of its new President, acclaimed Hollywood private investigator Becky Altringer in order to focus its efforts on two new internet based initiatives, applying entertainment industry talents and resources to establishing web portals that 1) build a social network to support a permanent Buy America citizens movement that encourages creation and production of products made exclusively in America and 2) creates a social network to support a Citizens Whistleblower Network based on You Tube that builds a social network to develop citizen led solutions to obtain accountability for corruption and abuse of power exposed by courageous whistleblowers and investigative reporters.