LET FREEDOM RING is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization; its main function is EDUCATION. It was established in June 2006 by WW II Army veteran, George Ciampa who served in five campaigns in Europe including the D-Day Normandy Invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. The organization, of which he is president, has four other directors: Sandi Rusconi, John Schmitt, Roger Svensson and James "Rusty" Rorke.
The mission of George Ciampa and LET FREEDOM RING is to educate high school students, in particular, regarding the meaning and high cost of FREEDOM... to stress the sacrifices made by young servicemen and women to ensure that we all can continue to enjoy the freedoms that we have. So many of those who have given their lives for freedom were not much older than our high school juniors and seniors. Freedom is not free.
Ciampa experienced, first hand, those sacrifices. He saw the faces of those who paid the supreme sacrifice...not just a few, not hundreds, but thousands of those faces. It was his job. He has not forgotten.
FREEDOM FILMS PRODUCED
In 2006, at age eighty-one, he personally raised sufficient funds... Northrop Grumman as his presenting sponsor... to film a documentary called, "Let Freedom Ring---The Lesson is Priceless." With the help of John Schmitt, Associate Superintendent of the Torrance (California) Unified School District, (LFR Board member), Ciampa selected four of his high school history teachers to take to Belgium where the teachers heard horror stories from civilians and freedom fighters who experienced the Nazi occupation. The teachers also heard the stories of the Battle of the Bulge veterans on the tour. This film is an eighty-one minute documentary and is in DVD format.
In 2007, at age eighty-two, Ciampa again personally raised funds to do another documentary of the same nature....this time in Normandy and Alsace Lorraine, France... with two other high school history teachers, a young journalist, a high school student and three combat veterans who served on D-Day. The documentary is "Let Freedom Ring---Memories of France." It is 60 minutes in length. Outpost Worldwide, Lenexa, KS, did the filming, editing, co-directing and much of the creativity for both of these films. Click here to view their website.
Both of these films have been widely acclaimed. Many of the hundreds of testimonials received by viewers have been posted on this website. Click here to view testimonials.
The goal now is to distribute both films (DVDs) to all of the 2117 high schools in California. Lesson plans, prepared by the participating teachers, will be on the website of LET FREEDOM RING for access by the teachers who will have received the DVDs. Funding is now being sought to implement replication and distribution of the DVDs.
The mission of George Ciampa and LET FREEDOM RING is to educate high school students, in particular, regarding the meaning and high cost of FREEDOM... to stress the sacrifices made by young servicemen and women to ensure that we all can continue to enjoy the freedoms that we have. So many of those who have given their lives for freedom were not much older than our high school juniors and seniors. Freedom is not free.
Ciampa experienced, first hand, those sacrifices. He saw the faces of those who paid the supreme sacrifice...not just a few, not hundreds, but thousands of those faces. It was his job. He has not forgotten.
FREEDOM FILMS PRODUCED
In 2006, at age eighty-one, he personally raised sufficient funds... Northrop Grumman as his presenting sponsor... to film a documentary called, "Let Freedom Ring---The Lesson is Priceless." With the help of John Schmitt, Associate Superintendent of the Torrance (California) Unified School District, (LFR Board member), Ciampa selected four of his high school history teachers to take to Belgium where the teachers heard horror stories from civilians and freedom fighters who experienced the Nazi occupation. The teachers also heard the stories of the Battle of the Bulge veterans on the tour. This film is an eighty-one minute documentary and is in DVD format.
In 2007, at age eighty-two, Ciampa again personally raised funds to do another documentary of the same nature....this time in Normandy and Alsace Lorraine, France... with two other high school history teachers, a young journalist, a high school student and three combat veterans who served on D-Day. The documentary is "Let Freedom Ring---Memories of France." It is 60 minutes in length. Outpost Worldwide, Lenexa, KS, did the filming, editing, co-directing and much of the creativity for both of these films. Click here to view their website.
Both of these films have been widely acclaimed. Many of the hundreds of testimonials received by viewers have been posted on this website. Click here to view testimonials.
The goal now is to distribute both films (DVDs) to all of the 2117 high schools in California. Lesson plans, prepared by the participating teachers, will be on the website of LET FREEDOM RING for access by the teachers who will have received the DVDs. Funding is now being sought to implement replication and distribution of the DVDs.
It is believed that no other World War II veteran has accomplished the above tasks and now it is necessary to consummate his Mission to distribute the films to high schools wherever it can be done to further educate students on the value of Freedom.
AIRING ON PBS STATIONS
Over 90 PBS stations have aired both LET FREEDOM RING documentaries: "Let Freedom Ring---The Lesson is Priceless" and "Let Freedom Ring---Memories of France". This started in November 2009 and continued over two years. Market coverage is from 70 to 80%!
The contract to air these documentaries has been renewed for another two years.
EIGHTH AIR FORCE DOCUMENTARY COMPLETED!
"Remembering The Fallen Heroes Of The 'MIGHTY EIGHTH'--WW II"
...with Jean-Paul Favrais
Operating from England in World War II was the EIGHTH AIR FORCE on daring daylight bombing raids on German targets.
A Frenchman, Jean-Paul Favrais, has tirelessly researched U.S. aircraft crashes in France and has obtained names of the perished crewmembers from U.S. Archives and matched them with the crash sites.
Favrais has located families of these airmen and hosted them in France where they were escorted to the respective crash sites...for closure. He continues to contact families to this day.
The father of Mrs K. Stanclift was a B-17 pilot whose plane was hit by German anti aircraft fire. He ordered the crew to bail out and landed the plane on a farm with the tail gunner aboard who was trapped. French farmers pulled them out of the burning plane. Shortly after, they became prisoners of the Germans and were taken to a hospital where the tail gunner had a leg amputated. This was in 1943. In 2006, sixty-three years later, Mrs Stanclift was invited to France by Favrais where she was brought to the farm where her father crashlanded and met the second and third generation living there now. She visited the hospital where her father and tail gunner were taken in 1943 and they still have the records!
In 1944 when Jean-Paul was nine years old he saw a U.S. P-38 fighter plane crash near his home. He saw the pilot's body and never forgot. In retirement, he spearheaded a movement to build a monument of granite shaped like the wing of the airplane, in memory of the pilot. Fifty one years later, in 1995, the monument was dedicated with American and French dignitaries present, as well as the pilot's younger sister and her son.
The documentary is a military/human interest story about the Eighth Air Force operations from England during 1943, 1944 and 1945... (The Eighth suffered 26,000 killed and 47,000 casualties). More killed than the Marines in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
The film traces Jean-Paul's relentless search of American aircraft crashes in Western France. His amazing story is now told. Also included are interviews with families of some of those killed airmen and interviews with some veterans of the "Mighty Eighth", as they were called.
Operating from England in World War II was the EIGHTH AIR FORCE on daring daylight bombing raids on German targets.
A Frenchman, Jean-Paul Favrais, has tirelessly researched U.S. aircraft crashes in France and has obtained names of the perished crewmembers from U.S. Archives and matched them with the crash sites.
Favrais has located families of these airmen and hosted them in France where they were escorted to the respective crash sites...for closure. He continues to contact families to this day.
The father of Mrs K. Stanclift was a B-17 pilot whose plane was hit by German anti aircraft fire. He ordered the crew to bail out and landed the plane on a farm with the tail gunner aboard who was trapped. French farmers pulled them out of the burning plane. Shortly after, they became prisoners of the Germans and were taken to a hospital where the tail gunner had a leg amputated. This was in 1943. In 2006, sixty-three years later, Mrs Stanclift was invited to France by Favrais where she was brought to the farm where her father crashlanded and met the second and third generation living there now. She visited the hospital where her father and tail gunner were taken in 1943 and they still have the records!
In 1944 when Jean-Paul was nine years old he saw a U.S. P-38 fighter plane crash near his home. He saw the pilot's body and never forgot. In retirement, he spearheaded a movement to build a monument of granite shaped like the wing of the airplane, in memory of the pilot. Fifty one years later, in 1995, the monument was dedicated with American and French dignitaries present, as well as the pilot's younger sister and her son.
The documentary is a military/human interest story about the Eighth Air Force operations from England during 1943, 1944 and 1945... (The Eighth suffered 26,000 killed and 47,000 casualties). More killed than the Marines in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
The film traces Jean-Paul's relentless search of American aircraft crashes in Western France. His amazing story is now told. Also included are interviews with families of some of those killed airmen and interviews with some veterans of the "Mighty Eighth", as they were called.
View, below, a short filmed excerpt of Eighth Air Force veterans being interviewed for the documentary.
(PRESS THE TRIANGLE ONCE TO PLAY VIDEO)
George Ciampa was interviewed by American Legion Magazine in conjunction with the preliminary filming of several Eighth Air Force veterans who served during WWII. Click here to view the filming and interview.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction....It must be fought for, protected, and handed on to them (future generations) to do the same."
Ronald Reagan