FIRST FREEDOM CENTER PLANS MOVING
INTO OVERDRIVE

   RICHMOND (November 12, 2003) - A dynamic cultural attraction designed to celebrate what has been called "the most important thing that ever happened in Richmond," made its first official public "appearance" today.
   The First Freedom Center, a national education center devoted to religious freedom and sponsored by the Council for America's First Freedom, will be constructed on the site of the former Virginia Capitol in Richmond's historic Shockoe Slip. Today, the Center's plans were revealed at a kickoff event at the future site of the Center.
   "Most people," said Tommy P. Baer, President of the Council for America's First Freedom, "are not aware that the guarantee of religious freedom for every citizen was inspired by the vision of Thomas Jefferson, George Mason and James Madison, and first established by law in Richmond, Va., in 1786. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was the precursor to the First Amendment guarantee."
   According to D. Stephen Elliott, Executive Director, "The First Freedom Center will inform, educate and inspire visitors about the importance of the religious liberty we enjoy in America, and will strengthen the public's appreciation for Virginia's pivotal role in the development of that right." The Center is scheduled to open in January 2007, beginning a year of celebration in conjunction with the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.
   "We are delighted today to show Richmond what we've been up to," Elliott added. "The Council has been working quietly to champion religious freedom for some time, but we are now springing forward to make that work visible."
   To make the Center a reality, the Council will raise a total of $10 million in the Greater Richmond area. "This is a very important goal," Gordon Rainey, Campaign Leadership Council Co-Chair, said to an audience of 200, "because its timely completion will enable us to go outside of Richmond in the coming months to raise additional money needed to build the Center." To date, the Council has raised more than $5 million in gifts and pledges from the Greater Richmond region, including funds raised during a successful seed-money campaign conducted 2002-2003. Glade Knight, chair of that campaign, and his leadership council were recognized at the event.
   Leadership gifts to the First Freedom Center campaign have been received recently from the Jerome Gumenick Philanthropic Fund, HCA Richmond Hospitals, Glade M. Knight, Mr. and Mrs. J. Christopher Lansing, Markel Corporation, The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Stettinius and Ukrop's/First Market Bank.
   "The First Freedom Center will be all about unity and respect for differences," said Rudolph G. McCollum, Jr., Mayor of the City of Richmond. "This will be a place where people of all beliefs-or none at all-can come together to share knowledge, understanding and ultimately, mutual respect. The city, by virtue of this national education center will become the 'capitol of religious freedom' and with that-the capitol of mutual respect and understanding ... something of which every Richmonder can be proud."
   For more information on the First Freedom Center or the Council for America's First Freedom, please contact Laura Baliles, Communications Director, at (804) 643-1786, ext. 23 or lbaliles@firstfreedom.org.

About the Council: The Council for America's First Freedom, a non-political, non-sectarian, 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization established in Richmond in 1984, strengthens understanding of and appreciation for religious liberty through educational initiatives and programming in Virginia, the United States and around the world.

About the First Freedom Center: The First Freedom Center will be a dynamic and international cultural attraction to inform, educate and inspire people worldwide about the importance of religious liberty. The Center, scheduled to open on the historic site of the former State Capitol of Virginia in 2007, will be the premier religious freedom education center in the world.