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MPACT

Honoring Leaders Defending Liberty

2017

Honoring great warriors


for their commitment to
defend liberty in the face
of opposition
Program Agenda

Welcome: Bill Dallas

Prayer

God Bless America performed by Ryan Slattery

Presentation of Outstanding IMPACT Award:


Ginni Thomas

Keynote Speaker: Sean Hannity

Luncheon Service

Introduction: Bill Dallas

Description of IMPACT Awards & Presentation:


Ginni Thomas

Presentation of IMPACT Awards to:


Dr. Larry Arnn
Dan Bongino
Tom Fitton
Frank Gaffney
Charlie Kirk
Rick Manning
James OKeefe
Star Parker
Chris Plante
Leonard Leo

Heres to the Heroes performed by Ryan Slattery

Presentation of Lifetime Achievement Award:


Ginni Thomas

Closing Remarks: Bob McEwen

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Welcome
Welcome to the first
annual IMPACT awards
luncheon to honor leaders
defending liberty. The awards
recognize outstanding efforts
of unsung warriors in numerous
fields outside of government
service. Honorees are making notable
contributions to preserving Americas
liberties with their life work.

Criteria for selection of these unsung heroes


include:
Demonstrates outstanding excellence and broad
impact.
Shows tenacity, courage and perseverance even under
hostile attacks.
Works with urgency, courage and wisdom.
Realizes existential threat to the American experiment.
Is an asset to the whole liberty movement.
Works to help beyond their own silo and job.
Is respected among their peers.
Lives and promotes core constitutional conservative values in the
Reagan tradition.

Thank you for joining me in honoring these men and women.

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Outstanding
IMPACT
Award

Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity is a multimedia


superstar, spending four hours a
day, every day, reaching out to millions
of Americans on radio, television and the
internet.

Nationally syndicated by Premiere Networks, The Sean


Hannity Show has more than 570 affiliates nationwide.
Heard by 14 million loyal listeners each week, Hannity is the
second most-listened-to talk show host in America, according to
Talkers magazine. Hannity has been the recipient of two Marconi
Awards for Network/Syndicated Personality of the Year, and is a
three-time consecutive winner of the Radio & Records National Talk
Show Host of The Year award. He was inducted into the National Radio
Hall of Fame in 2017.

Hannity is an accomplished author with three #1 best selling books. His


first book, Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism,
rode the New York Times Best Sellers list for a remarkable 17 weeks.
His follow-up, Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and
Liberalism, debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list and held
strong for five consecutive weeks. In similar fashion, Conservative Victory:
Defeating Obamas Radical Agenda was released in 2010 and it quickly
took the #1 spot.

Hannity has the unique ability to reach out and connect with his audience,
proven during his highly successful Hannitization of America Tour, which
brought hundreds of thousands of like-minded Americans together. He has
visited markets big and small from coast to coast since the tour began in
2001.

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MPACT
Honoring Leaders Defending Liberty

In 2003, Hannity launched the


Freedom Concerts to raise awareness
and funds for The Freedom Alliance, a
charity which provides scholarships to children
of slain U.S. military personnel. The 2009 Freedom
Concert series was a huge success attended by over
80,000 people in eight major U.S. cities: Atlanta, San
Diego, Dallas, Houston, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Phoenix,
and Jackson, New Jersey.

A gutsy talk-show host who always lands on the right side of the
issues, Hannity is the host of FOX News Channels Hannity, which airs
weeknights from 9 to 10 p.m. ET. Hannity, who joined the network in
1996, offers a mix of news, commentary, guest interviews and more on the
program each night. Prior to the launch of Hannity, he was co-host of the #1
prime-time cable news debate show, Hannity & Colmes, for over 10 years, in
addition to hosting #1 weekend program Hannitys America, both airing on
the network.

Hannitys energy, charisma, and Reagan conservatism score high points


with audience and critics alike as he continues to be one of the hottest
commodities in media.

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

Dr. Larry P. Arnn


Hillsdale College
Hillsdale, MI

Larry P. Arnn is the twelfth president of


Hillsdale College, where he is also a professor
of politics and history. He received his B.A. from
Arkansas State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in
Government from the Claremont Graduate School. He
also studied at Worcester College, Oxford University, where he
served as director of research for Sir Martin Gilbert, the official
biographer of Winston Churchill. From 1985 to 2000, he served as
president of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship
and Political Philosophy. In 1996, he was the founding chairman of the
California Civil Rights Initiative, which prohibited racial preferences in state
hiring, contracting, and admissions. Dr. Arnn is on the board of directors of The
Heritage Foundation, the Henry Salvatori Center of Claremont McKenna College,
the Philadelphia Society, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and the Claremont
Institute. He served on the U.S. Army War College Board of Visitors for two years, for which
he earned the Department of the Armys Outstanding Civilian Service Medal. In 2015,
he received the Bradley Prize from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Dr. Arnn is
the author of three books: Liberty and Learning: The Evolution of American Education;
The Founders Key: The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the
Constitution and What We Risk by Losing It; and Churchills Trial: Winston Churchill and
the Salvation of Free Government.
Summary of your niche in the movement:
Hillsdale College was founded in 1844 with the principles of civil and religious freedom
and intelligent piety as its purposes. Our founding documents were ratified in loyalty
to the principles and the institutions of the United States of America. As such, the
College has pursued these purposes through the diffusion of sound learning, namely
in the liberal arts tradition and the study of our Western philosophical and theological
inheritance. In this sense, we are conservative because we seek to conserve the
best of and knowledge of this heritage, a legacy finding its clearest expression in the
American experiment of self-government under law.
The College promotes this mission in part by maintaining serious education in its
undergraduate programs, by promoting the establishment of classical K-12 charter

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schools across the country, and by offering


free online courses available to all who are
willing to learn.

Who or what is your inspiration to start down


this path:
When I was approached about the position of president of
Hillsdale College, they sent me a copy of the original Articles of
Association and Constitution of the College.The documents were a
thing of beauty. They come from the founding of the College in 1844,
and they are written with language akin to the Declaration of Independence.
Hillsdale College is unique and has been dedicated to the highest things since
its beginnings.

Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:


We are in a crisis.The regulatory state has expanded at the expense of the sovereignty of
the people. Despite this, we have reason to hope.The principles upon which our nation
was founded are universal and eternal.They have survived and overcome slavery and
the pressures of great wars. Because there is truth and goodness and beauty in them.
And there are those of us who will dedicate our lives to conserve such things. I meet with
people every day who find the bureaucratic government to be ugly and dangerous. I see
hundreds of college students rise to self-government. I receive letters from individuals
across the country stating their commitment to join us in the defense of liberty. Because
of all this, I am optimistic for our future.

Social Media Channels/Reach:


Facebook: @hillsdalecollegemichigan - 145.7K followers
Many of the speakers hosted on campus are live streamed.
Twitter: @Hillsdale - 44.3K followers
Website: www.Hillsdale.edu
The Colleges Imprimis publication reaches 3.7 million readers.

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

Dan Bongino
CRTV
Palm City, FL

Dans public service career began


with the NYPD in 1995. After joining the
US Secret Service in 1999, Dan received
a Department of Justice award for his many
successful investigations while assigned to a
financial fraud task-force.
In 2006, Dan joined the elite Presidential Protective
Division during the administration of President George W.
Bush. Dan became one of the earliest tenured agents to be given
responsibility for an operational section of the presidential detail and
he remained on protective duty with President Obama.
One of their most distinguished agents, Dans assignments included the
coordination of President Obamas visits to Prague and Jakarta amongst a
myriad of terror threats, and finally as the lead agent responsible for President
Obamas visit to an active war zone in Afghanistan.
A New York Times best selling author of Life Inside the Bubble: Why a Top-
Ranked Secret Service Agent Walked Away From It All, and The Fight: A Secret
Service Agents Inside Account of Security Failings and the Political Machine,
Dan provides expertise on international security and political strategy for
outlets such as Fox News and others.
Dan has his MBA from Penn State University, and his MA and BA from the City
University of New York.

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Honoring Leaders Defending Liberty

Summary of your niche in the


movement:
Recovering politician, activist, and
conservative content producer.
Who or what is your inspiration to start
down this path:
Thomas Sowell
Lessons learned to date from your work in the
movement:
The fight matters, not simply the result.
Social Media Channels/Reach:
Facebook: @Dan.Bongino - 201K followers
Twitter: @dbongino - 165K followers
Website: www.bongino.com

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

Thomas J. Fitton
Judicial Watch, Inc.
Washington, DC

Tom Fitton is the President of Judicial


Watch, the public interest group that
investigates and prosecutes government
corruption. As president of Judicial Watch
since 1998and with over 25 years experience
in conservative public policyFitton helped turn
Judicial Watch into Americas largest and most effective
government watchdog organization. Everyday Americans,
media, movement leaders, and elected officials rely on Judicial
Watch to find out the truth about what the government is up to.

Who or what is your inspiration to start down this path:


My parents taught me the values of being principled and working hard.
Judicial Watch actually does something about the corruption issues many
Americans can only complain about.

Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:


The conservative movement does best when it focuses on what the grassroots
demand. It does worst when it focuses on what allied politicians need.

Social Media Channels/Reach:


Facebook: @JudicialWatch - 4.3MM followers
Twitter: @TomFitton - 88.1K followers; @JudicialWatch - 569K followers
Website: www.judicialwatch.org
Email List: 1,000,143

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

Frank Gaffney
President and CEO, Center for Security Policy
Washington, DC

Summary of your niche in the


movement:
Since I helped found the Center for
Security Policy in 1988, it has championed
the philosophy Ronald Reagan called peace
through strength and striven to ensure that the
conservative movement supports the robust defense
and foreign policies and programs that it requires. In so
doing over nearly three decades of operations, we have
been a mainstay of and advocate for the national security leg
in what he rightly conceived of as the conservative movements
three-legged stool.
Who or what is your inspiration to start down this path:
I had the privilege as a very young man to learn about the time-tested necessity
for and practice of peace through strength through on-the-job-training under
both Democratic and Republican bosses, like Sen. Henry Scoop Jackson,
Sen. John Tower, President Reagan and Secretary of Defense Caspar Cap
Weinberger. As a result, I found myself at a critical moment in the Cold War
helping them execute a strategy for defeating that times existential threat to
freedom, an experience that has informed and inspired my work in countering
those that have subsequently emerged.
Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:
History is largely made by small numbers of brilliant, inspired, disciplined, and
dedicated individuals. When the conservative movement has been led by such men
and women, it has been an extraordinary force for good in our country and the world.
Social Media Channels/Reach:
Facebook: @SecureFreedom - 22.5K followers; reached 100K in November
Frank Gaffney public Facebook page has 3,000 likes and reached 41,000
people in the past month.
Twitter: @frankgaffney - 35K followers
Website: www.SecureFreedom.org

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

Charlie Kirk
CEO of Turning Point USA
Chicago, IL

Charlie Kirk is the Founder and Executive


Director of Turning Point USA, a national
student movement dedicated to identifying,
organizing, and empowering young people to
promote the principles of free markets, and limited
government.

Since the inception of Turning Point USA on June 5th of


2012, Charlie has grown Turning Point USA from nothing to
having representation on over 1,200 high schools and college
campuses nationwide and over 150 full time staff. At 24 years old,
he has appeared on Fox News, CNBC, and FOX Business News over
200 times. He is also a best-selling author, was the youngest speaker at
the 2016 Republican National Convention, and a proud eagle scout.
Summary of your niche in the movement:
Working to organize college and high school students around the timeless
values of freedom!
Who or what is your inspiration to start down this path:
I was inspired by the reelection of President Obama to invigorate a youth
movement centered around the ideas of free markets and smaller government!

Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:


The greatest enemies you will face are not on the left, but on the right.

Social Media Channels/Reach:


Facebook:
@turningpointusa - 745.5K followers & 8 million reached/day
@realCharlieKirk - 30.2K followers
Twitter:
@charliekirk11 - 246K followers; 5 million reached/day
@TPUSA - 90.7K followers
Website: www.TPUSA.com

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

Richard Manning
President, Americans for Limited Gov.
Chesapeake Beach, MD

Americans for Limited Government is


dedicated to restoring the constitutional,
limited powers of government at the federal,
state, and local level. ALG does this by fighting
to reduce the size and scope of government,
protecting individuals rights, promoting federalism,
and rolling back the tyranny of the administrative state.
This will put America first, foster free enterprise, and restore
the rule of law.

Summary of your niche in the movement:


Communications, political and legislative leader willing to work across
channels to bolster limited government, Constitutional rule of law initiatives.

Who or what is your inspiration to start down this path:


As a young child I was inspired by the idealism of the Barry Goldwater campaign,
as a teen I had fun volunteering in Congressional races, and in college led
my schools College Republican club and then was elected Executive Vice
President of the California College Republicans.

Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:


Work hard, stay behind the scenes so others can shine, and keep your eyes on
your objective.

Social Media Channels/Reach:


Facebook: @AmericansForLimitedGovernment - 124.5K followers
Twitter: @LimitGovt - 4.7K followers
Website: www.getliberty.org
Email List: 100K

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

James OKeefe
Founder and President, Project Veritas
Westchester County, NY

Summary of your niche in the


movement:
Project Veritas is the premiere undercover
investigative reporting organization in the world.
Our work exposes fraud, corruption, and dishonesty
in both public and private institutions. We aim to
promote a more ethical and transparent society.

Who or what is your inspiration to start down this


path:
When I first began, my inspiration was the discrepancy between the
world as it is and the way it is presented to us in the pages of The New
York Times. Armed with a hidden camera and a YouTube account, I set out
to document the world for what it is. Video is the most unfiltered, raw way to get
information out to the people. Ultimately, I believe in the power of a free people
to make informed decisions to create a great, lasting and moral society.This
stands in stark contrast to the vision of the mainstream press which believes
we need to tell people what to believe and who to vote for.The latter is an
anathema to a free people and a free media.

Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:


When you make powerful enemies by taking on the status quo, you will not
escape unscathed. Weve been jailed, sued, defamed, and detained by DHS
at the border, but weve trekked on and continued to get results despite
overwhelming obstacles. I joke that we are the ones that got away. At this
point weve developed such a following that our problems have evolved. Our
largest and latest storiesall large media corporations were afraid to break
the stories! The videos involving Hillary Clintons campaign and subcontractors
talking about fomenting violence at Trump rallies were mentioned by President
Trump at the debates, and earned tens of millions of views online, but

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were spiked (dropped) at the last minute


by all major corporate media outlets we
gave the stories to ahead of time. Perhaps
those outlets feared potential retaliation by a
future Hillary Clinton Administration. Ive learned
its futile for Project Veritas to fight for a seat at the
media table, it must become the table other people will
sit at. We have to build a new type of media company, fiercely
independent and focused only on ferreting out the truth.

Social Media Channels/Reach:


We have six social media accounts across both Facebook and Twitter.
We have over 600,000 followers on twitter and during new story releases
we average over one million impressions a day. On Facebook we have around
300,000 followers.

Website: www.projectveritas.com

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

Chris Plante
Host of the Chris Plante Show on
WMAL / Westwood One
Washington, DC

Chris joined the WMAL team after 17


years at CNN including nearly ten years
assigned to the Pentagon covering the U.S.
military and intelligence community.

Chris was assigned variously as Pentagon


Correspondent, Senior Producer for National Security
Affairs, Military Affairs Producer and as an assignment
editor. He travelled extensively for CNN covering defense related
stories from Saudi Arabia in 1990 and Bosnia in 1995, to Vietnam,
Indonesia, Africa and the remote corners of the former Soviet Union.

Chris received the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio and Television
News Directors Association (RTNDA) for his reporting from the Pentagon during
the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.

Chris formerly hosted his own program on the The American Life television
network, and nowadays makes frequent appearances on various cable news
networks including the Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC.

In his time with WMAL, Chris has helped raise significant amounts of money for
charities like the Fisher House Foundation.

Representing the third generation of his family that has been on-the-air in
radio and television, Chris brings a unique worldview, and largely conservative/
libertarian values to his role as talk show host on WMAL.

Marching in lock-step with no politician, Chris says his political party is Practi-
crat because of my distinctly practical political leanings.

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Summary of your niche in the


movement:
In the trenches from 9:00am to noon, Monday
through Friday hosting The Chris Plante Show on
WMAL, and around the nation on The Westwood
One Radio Network., with occasional appearances on
The Fox News Channel.

Who or what is your inspiration to start down this


path:
His name was Ronald Wilson Reagan. But Jimmy Carter certainly did
his part.

Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:


Far too many to list in this space.

Social Media Channels/Reach:


Facebook: @ChrisPlanteShow - 16.3K followers
Twitter: @ChrisPlanteShow - 11.9K followers
Website: www.wmal.com/chris-plante/

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

Star Parker
President, Center for Urban Renewal
& Education
Washington, DC

The CURE Mission:


To fight poverty and restore dignity through the
message of faith, freedom and personal responsibility.
Star Parker is one of the names on the short list
mentioned when anyone speaks of national black
conservative leaders. Star Parker is the founder and
president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a
public policy think tank that promotes market-based solutions
to fight poverty.
Before involvement in social activism, Star had seven years of first-
hand experience in the grip of welfare dependency. After consulting on
federal Welfare Reform in the mid-90s, she founded UrbanCure to bring
new ideas to policy discussions on how to transition Americas poor from
government dependency.
Star has a bachelors degree in Marketing and International Business from
Woodbury University and has received numerous awards and commendations for her
work on public policy issues.

Summary of your niche in the movement:


I have a deep desire to remove governmental barriers that hinder faith, freedom and
personal responsibility, especially for our nations most vulnerable citizens living in
distressed communities.

Who or what is your inspiration to start down this path:


After years lost in moral relativism and government dependency, a Christian conversion
changed my worldview.
Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:
To appreciate the wisdom of an old quote that, hard things take a long time and
impossible things take a little longer.

Social Media Channels/Reach:


Facebook: @UrbanCURE - 63.3K followers
Twitter: @UrbanCURE - 25.9K followers
Website: www.urbancure.org / www.starparker.com
Blog: blackcommunitynews.com

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IMPACT Award
Recipient

Leonard A. Leo
Executive Vice President, The Federalist
Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Washington, DC

The Federalist Society for Law and Public


Policy Studies is a group of conservatives
and libertarians interested in the current state
of the legal order. It is founded on the principles
that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the
separation of governmental powers is central to our
Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and
duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should
be. The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these
principles and to further their application through its activities.

Summary of your niche in the movement:


Building a nationwide infrastructure of conservative lawyers committed
to limited, constitutional government and finding ways for those lawyers to
transform the legal culture through their professional work.

Who or what is your inspiration to start down this path:


I began to realize that the structural limits on government power set forth in
our Constitution are inextricably intertwined with the preservation of the worth
and dignity of the human person.

Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:


The principles set forth in our Constitution, and conservative ideals more
broadly, are widely shared by Americans, and efforts to marginalize these
beliefs, though challenging, are far less successful than some might have you
believe.

Website: www.fedsoc.org

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Lifetime
Achievement
Award

Richard Viguerie
Chairman of American Target Advertising
Northern Virginia

Summary of your niche in the


movement:
1961 Executive Secretary of Young
Americans for Freedom (YAF)
Pioneered political/ideological direct mail in the
1960s and 1970s allowing conservatives (before talk
radio, cable TV, and the internet) to bypass the monopoly
liberals had on Americas microphones.

Founded the nations first and still largest conservative direct


marketing firm (The Viguerie Company) in 1965, and have since
raised more than $7 billion for conservative causes and candidates.
I was the first to apply direct marketing principles to political fundraising,
and realized early that direct mail, email, and new media are capable of
bypassing the establishment gatekeepers to deliver conservative news and
opinion directly to grassroots activists and donors.

Founding member of the New Right that helped get Ronald Reagan elected.

002 Active at the national level longer than every living conservative
except one otherDr. Lee Edwards. He named me one of 13 conservatives
of the century in a Washington Times article in 1999.

The late John F. Kennedy Jr.s magazine, George declared the founding of my
company one of the 100 defining moments in American politics in the 20th
century.

I have mentored and worked with three generations of conservative leaders,


and Im not done yet! I just hosted my first seminar on how conservatives
can use the lessons of the Trump revolution to build their donor base and
expand the influence of their organizations.

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Who or what is your inspiration to


start down this path:
I was, as well as most all other second
generation conservatives were anti-communist
before we were conservatives. In the 1950s, 1960s,
and 1970s, if you were an anti-communist, it was a
short trip to become a fully-formed, limited government,
constitutional conservative.

Lessons learned to date from your work in the movement:


The number one need conservatives have is for leaders. The conservative
movement has many spokesmen, but few leaders. Conservatives at the
national, state, and local level need to act as a fourth forceindependent
of the other three political forces (the left, the GOP Establishment, and
President Trump and his Administration). Sometimes conservatives interest
will overlap with GOP Congressional leaders and President Trump, e.g., judicial
appointments. But conservatives must be focused on building and strengthening
the movement so that we will be effective in pulling everyone in the direction
of limited constitutional government under Gods laws. Unfortunately in recent
decades, too many national conservatives became an arm, an appendage, of a
Republican White House, the Republican Party, and Congressional Republicans.

Social Media Channels/Reach:


ConservativeHQ.com articles are sent to 185,000 people Monday-Friday. CHQ
and other platforms reach 250,000 conservative activists every day.

More than 14,000 people follow me on Twitter, and my Klout score is 79--which
is just a few numbers lower than my physical age.

Website: www.conservativehq.com

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Soloist

Ryan Slattery

Ryan Slattery is a junior at The Catholic


University of America in Washington, D.C.
and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music
degree in vocal performance under the guidance
of Mr. Rick Christman.

Ryans recent operatic performances at the Catholic


Universitys Benjamin T. Rome School of Music include the
title role in Bizets Doctor Miracle, Normanno in Donizettis Lucia
di Lammermoor, and Spinnellocio in Puccinis Gianni Schicchi.

This coming spring, Ryan will play Basilio in Mozarts, Le Nozze di Figaro.
Ryan also performs in musical theatre productions at Cockpit in Court
Summer Theatre in Essex, MD, where he has played Sparky in Forever Plaid
and Jesus in Godspell.

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Awards Honoring Leaders Defending Liberty

Committee
Tommy Binion
Ken Blackwell
Jerry Boykin
Stephanie Coleman
Kenneth Cuccinelli
Host
Bill Dallas
Tim Daughtry
Committee
Tom Fitton Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Becky Gerritson Honorable Ken Cuccinelli
Connie Hair Tom Fitton, President,
Leonard Leo Judcial Watch
Jenny Beth Martin Jenny Beth Martin, Co-Founder
Bob McEwen & President, Tea Party Patriots
Edwin Meese III Honorable Bob McEwen,
Greg Mueller Former OH Member of Congress
Sandy Rios Edwin Meese III
Matt Schlapp Greg Mueller, President,
Ginni Thomas CRC Public Relations
Mike Thompson Matt Schlapp, Chairman, ACU

www.ImpactAwardsEvent.com 23

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