The Heritage Foundation’s George Kryvenka realized growing up that communism and oppression have real and dire consequences. As a child in Belarus, a former Soviet republic, propaganda from the Soviet and then the Belarusian government led him to believe the United States was the enemy. But his own country’s harsh government and his knowledge of English led him to reconsider. Today he proudly lives in Maryland and works as Heritage’s facilities manager.
Bob Miller addresses Heritage's fall 2012 intern class as Heritage Vice President Becky Norton Dunlop looks on.
Entrepreneur and Heritage Foundation member Bob Miller urged Heritage interns in a speech last week to “to keep the American Dream alive for those who come after us.”
Miller, who built Better Baked Foods from the ground up, knows actions speak louder than words.
“My life demonstrates the positive effect of the American Dream. My 50 year story is really a love affair with freedom,” he told the 60 interns assembled in Heritage’s Allison Auditorium for their graduation ceremony.
Miller came from humble beginnings making donuts at his family’s bakery. He eventually started a hot dog and pizza stand, which grew into one of the largest frozen food manufacturers in the United States. Continue Reading »
Orit Sklar
As a young conservative who grew up in New York and now resides in Atlanta, Heritage Foundation member Orit Sklar is no stranger to public policy and constitutional debates. Her love of country and conservative values run so deep that she never gets deterred by liberals. She knows she is fighting the good fight.
The 27-year-old Sklar is a champion of individual liberty, economic freedom, traditional values, and American exceptionalism. Her family faced persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe before they emigrated to the U.S., so she knows just how exceptional America is.
And she truly understands the devastating effects of big government. Continue Reading »
Allan Clark has never questioned the importance of hard work and effort. Allan and his seven siblings grew up in southern California on his single mother’s salary. He recalls patching his shoes with playing cards and duct tape when money was tight.
Never taking things for granted, Allan began working full-time at a construction company driving forklifts and was quickly promoted to yard manager due to his hard work and diligence. At 19 years old, Allan saved up enough money to purchase his first house, a very counter-cultural act for a California teenager in the 70s.
Growing up with a distant father, Allan made fatherhood a priority in his own life. After marrying his wife, Silvana, they knew their lives were too good not to share with just each another. Allan and Silvana were active volunteers with local foster homes, volunteering their time to be a positive role model for children with less than perfect pasts. After seeing firsthand the frustration and bureaucracy of the foster system, Allan and his wife adopted an eight-year-old girl who had an abusive past. Allan dove into fatherhood, choosing a career as a school bus trainer so he could have the summers off, never missing his daughter’s dance recitals, school plays or softball games.
Heritage research has shown that adolescents with strong relationships with their fathers have more positive psychological, behavioral and educational outcomes. Having a father present also drastically decreases the chance of an adolescent to be delinquent, and/or abuse drugs or alcohol. Allan knew the implications and took the responsibility of fatherhood seriously. Continue Reading »
G.L. Carter
George Washington, Ronald Reagan, and even Elvis Presley left legacies that have permanently changed America. But you don’t have to live a life in the spotlight to leave a legacy. Heritage member G.L. Carter is a prime example of someone who, like many of us, has worked hard and lived the American Dream. Today, he is committed to leaving a powerful legacy behind.
In fact, well over 1,700 Americans just like you have decided to leave a legacy of freedom by including The Heritage Foundation in their will or trust and joining the Heritage Legacy Society. The Heritage Legacy Society was created to help facilitate the estate planning process for members and can even provide a complimentary Wills Planner (see form below).
The story behind G.L.’s legacy began with a run-in at the tender age of 12 with the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA, one of the most controversial agencies created under Franklin Roosevelt’s New deal, confiscated the land his family was farming. This was his first experience with the intrusive nature of government. Continue Reading »
When asked why they are conservatives, Heritage Foundation members Charles and Anne Willey have a ready answer. Personal liberty, self-reliance and limited government are important principles, they say. And Americans, they add, do not need or want meddling, ill-informed government butting into their lives.
The best government, in their view, is a limited government defined by the rule of law. Problems are best solved, innovations are created and the human condition is improved when individuals and voluntary associations of individuals act in their mutual self-interest.
Anne explains:
We are deeply frustrated with a government which manipulates its citizenry through tax incentives and entitlements to encourage dependency, picking winners and losers, and swelling the debt and budget of the country. We are frustrated with a government which over-criminalizes its citizenry to engineer liberal progressivism into all parts of our lives: our health care, our families and social choices, our education, our energy choices, the media, and our businesses and banking enterprises, among others.
Heritage member James M. Knott, Sr. started a small business—and had to face down regulators.
No one knows better than James Knott, Sr. the dangers and frustrations overzealous regulatory agencies impose on small business owners. In fact, among the issues that concern him most is our “lack of control over bureaucrats.”
And no wonder: Knott, a Heritage Foundation member since 1999, has faced challenges from both OSHA and the EPA at Riverdale Mills Corporation, where he serves as president. However, having “experienced attempted brutality by bureaucrats” has only strengthened his conservative beliefs.
Knott represents many Americans who have worked hard as entrepreneurs. Ever since his honorable discharge in 1956 from the United States Army as a first lieutenant, he has been self-employed. Riverdale Mills provides products used for lobster traps, erosion control, poultry farm flooring and security fencing.
But in 1997, bureaucrats in Washington butted in. Continue Reading »
Heritage member John Amanchukwu, shown here with his wife, believes strongly in Heritage's conservative mission.
Heritage Patriots Club member John Amanchukwu is the 27-year-old executive director of the Upper Room Christian Academy, a private school in Raleigh, NC that serves students pre-K through 12th grade.
A Christian first and a conservative second, John says he came to conservatism because of his biblical principles. Now that he is a father, leader, minister and school leader, he shares these same principles with the people that he serves.
John loves sharing conservative answers to today’s issues. The Heritage Foundation, he says, contributes to this love by providing information that helps conservatives frame their arguments.
Conservative ideas offer solutions to today’s problems, he argues: Continue Reading »
Michael Giobbe views his membership in the Heritage Legacy Society as a sound investment
To say that Heritage Foundation member Michael Giobbe knows a thing or two about finance would be quite an understatement considering he’s spent his entire professional life working on Wall Street. Given Mike’s thorough understanding of finances, it should come as no surprise that one of the ways he’s chosen to support The Heritage Foundation’s work is to establish multiple charitable gift annuities.
“There’s only so much I can do as an individual,” says Mike. “Supporting Heritage is a way for me to turn my resources into action. It’s important for me to have a voice on Capitol Hill, and Heritage is that voice.”
Mike was immediately intrigued by the idea of using charitable gift annuities to support Heritage’s long-range efforts, and he’s established multiple annuities over the years. Continue Reading »
Loren and Joe Simonds hope their new daughter will grow up in an America more committed to conservative principles.
Having just brought a baby girl into this world, Young President’s Club member Joe Simonds fears his daughter won’t know what it means to be a proud American by the age of 10. “I fear that she could be expelled from school from saying a prayer or perhaps even the pledge of Allegiance because it contains the word ‘God’ in it.”
“Our country was built on conservative principles,” he says. “That is what has made us so unique and powerful as a nation. My fear is we have completely lost sight of what got us here in the first place.” Continue Reading »