About this project

The Founding Fathers Project... 

The Founding Fathers Project is being designed by two concerned young citizens who found out about a problem that looks too big to fix, but is also too serious to ignore. The problem is critical. They couldn’t look away without a giving it their best shot.

The idea is to make an App that American future leaders will see as relevant and will want to use. An App for more than just fun, but one that is fun. An app that will promote leadership skills, help fill a significant educational void, and ultimately help prevent detrimental national leadership.

This kind of educational void is one of the worst kinds. It represents a critical need in our society because it involves a lack of knowledge and lack of interest in the historical truths upon which our nation has been founded.Yet, it is a recognized fact that lack of significant historical knowledge among our leadership adversely affects the future safety and well being of our nation.

The Founding Fathers Project is a purposeful response to this historical illiteracy evidenced by many of America's present and future leaders.

Bill Potter, Author and Historian writes...

• “Because of a deliberately enforced manipulation of historical data, a national amnesia seems to have arisen, wherein the average American citizen today finds himself in unprecedented ignorance of the founders of our own nation. Like the men of the Old Testament, we forget about the sacrifices of our ancestors and the principles they enshrined to perpetuate our liberties... The men of The Founding Father’s Project are reviving tried and true historical content to teach in a fresh and appealing way in the struggle to preserve our history. Using interactive, state of the art iPad book technology they are creating an app which draws the user into the pages of history and reanimates the framers of our Republic....While books continue to be published about our founders and their values, fewer people read... We have been given new access to current and future generations and these creative avenues of communication must be exploited and brought under the dominion of Christ. 
We must use all the weapons that providence has placed at our disposal and here is a ground-floor use for one of the newest. While George Washington was the sword of the founding of the Republic, Patrick Henry the trumpet, Thomas Jefferson the pen—without men like John Hancock and Henry Morris, who provided the purse, the day would not have been won.
 Consider helping these creative young warriors seize the moment... to preserve the truths of the past for which our fathers pledged their lives and sacred honor to secure.

Sgt. Sam, Historian and Host of Soldering through History writes...

• "Today, modern technology is equipping us to communicate vital historical information like never before. As host to the children's series Soldiering Through History, I recognize the importance of an engaging history lesson. Names and dates on their own can be dull and lifeless. When, however, those facts are combined with an exciting, visually stimulating, and interactive presentation, history truly comes to life! My friends at AppTankDesigns are doing exactly that in their new American History App series. Sgt. Sam fully endorses... and asks you to consider supporting them as they bring stories of America's Founding Fathers to the children of the 21st century." - Sgt. Sam

No wonder we have problems as a country!

The answer:  An interactive iBook Series on the Founding Fathers

• Preston and Daniel agree: “We are designing an interactive iPad App that will “speak” the language of today’s youth. The Founding Fathers Project App will have theme appropriate, intentionally selected, historically factual, edifying visual, and primary source historical content...all produced in the “language” of today’s youth. We at AppTankDesigns know the language and we believe we can use that language to make America’s providential history relevant to young people.  Using the “learning by doing” method, this app will combine all three learning modalities (for all three types of learners: visual, auditory and tactile). This format can bring history to life using the language of the young and the God designed function of the brain."

Without a doubt, our founding fathers would be horrified at the demonstrable ignorance in much of the population.  By anyone’s standards, we have fallen far from our noble founding when most people were well-versed in history, literature and even theology.

"That’s why my friend Daniel Walsh of Orlando, Florida, and I, Preston Cone of San Antonio, Texas, two homeschool graduates, have been working on this project...to do our part...to change that."

Preston Cone, co-owner of AppTankDesigns 

Daniel Walsh, co-owner of AppTankDesigns

One example of an interactive iPad app is the Alice in Wonderland interactive iPad book below, the technology is riveting, playful and fun.

Future Leaders Need Historical Literacy

So, what is the target audience for the Founding Fathers Project? ... Young future leaders of America. 

The George Washington iBook

Not surprisingly, the first iBook in the Founding Fathers Project series, will star none other than George Washington, our first president.  While most Americans recognize him as the face of the dollar bill, few know the details of how this man stood for liberation, nationalism and Christian duty.

George Washington on the dollar bill

Unlike the traditional book, the interactive iBook stimulates the God designed function of the brain using a multi-sensory method.

By simply tapping the screen, the app could do things like:

• Start George’s tears at the age of 11 when his father died in 1743.

• Make Washington survey land after his appointment, at the age of 17, to become the official surveyor for Culpeper County, Virginia in 1749.

• Initiate the marriage ceremony to Martha Custis on January 6, 1759 as Washington wore a suit of blue and silver with red trimming and gold knee buckles.  His bride wore purple silk shoes with spangled buckles.

• Move Washington on horseback through the woods as he participates in the French and Indian War (1754–62) as the French began expanding their military control into the territory also claimed by the British colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania.

• Bow Washington’s head in prayer at Valley Forge north of Philadelphia in December of 1777 where he lost 2,500 of his 11,000 man army due to a combination of the cold and disease.

• Fire the canons in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783).

• Help Washington deliver the final blow to the British in 1781, after a French naval victory allowed American and French forces to trap a British army in Virginia. The surrender at Yorktown on October 17, 1781 marked the end of major fighting in continental North America.

• Begin Washington’s Farewell address from September 19, 1796 which emphasized the importance of America’s national union, the value of the Constitution, the rule of law, the evils of political parties, and the proper moral virtues of the people.

George Washington kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge

This kind of learning app will help address the problem yet the expense in time and money for quality is great. Preston and Daniel have led by example and have already donated much time, and personal finances but could use some help. Thank you for considering the following ways:

3 Action Steps you can take for the Founding Fathers Project

1.    Pray.  Please ask God to bless our land, awaken our citizens to this leadership need, and give His perspective to the next generation of leaders.

2.    Give $50. Thank you for considering. Check out the various premiums we’re offering on the right side of the screen as added incentive for you to co-labor with us.

3.    Spread the word.  Tell your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter and through your personal email list by copying and pasting this link, inviting them to consider a $50 donation as well.

Let’s stop the ignorance. Let’s educate young people in an interactive way so our future American leaders understand our founding! And let’s start with the man who is a hero to us all, and our first founding father: George Washington!

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