Exploration Day Entering Stage 2 of Launch Sequence

Stage 1 of our launch completes today.  We are officially four weeks in to our effort to have Columbus Day rededicated to Exploration Day.  With no money and limited resources and contacts, here is a short list of where we have been on this exploration:

• How we started
• Set up a Facebook Page
• Set up a Twitter Account
• Why the time is right to replace Columbus Day with Exploration Day
• Why Exploration Day?
• Rhett Allain and Jeffrey Marlow of Wired.com Take Us National, signatures received from at least 48 states
• Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post Dispatch writes about our efforts
• Co-Founders Karl Frank and Tom Diehl appear on McGraw Millhaven's show on KTRS 550
• PZ Myers, Shawn Otto, Fraser Cain, Dr. Pamela Gay, Nicole Guggliucci, and Jason Major endorse our efforts.
• Efforts to change Columbus Day to Exploration Day goes on the air with Don Marsh from St. Louis Public Radio 907 FM - NPR
• Co-Founder Karl Frank goes on the air with Mark Reardon on KMOX 1120
• Exploration Day Makes the Front Page of AOL.com thanks to Sarah Flagg's Reporting on KMOX
• World famous, but unfortunately anonymous scientist supports our efforts, and promises to speak positively about our efforts if contacted by the press.  (is there an emoticon for "fingers crossed?"

So, now we enter Stage 2.  As I told Mark Reardon on KMOX, at the time we had been at this for only a little over 3 weeks.  We shot first and then aimed.  In the process, we received over 1500 hundred signatures from at least 48 states, as well as military bases all over the world.

On Tuesday, a producer from New York City is flying in to interview Exploration Day about our efforts to have Columbus Day rededicated.  The producer is from the number one rated Network Sunday Morning News show with 5 million viewers.  The interview will broadcast the day before Columbus Day.  (Hopefully the last Columbus Day in American History). In the meantime, we are in the process of putting together a board of advisers, continuing to compile a list of notable endorsements, draft a proclamation template for city mayors and state governors, and have a new petition live within the next few days. We are also further honing our message:

Exploration is a broad topic, but the exploratory spirit is not. It's a human characteristic that drives adventure, and progress while satisfying the insatiable need to know what's over the next horizon.

Exploration Day is a day to celebrate the risk takers with the ingenuity, creativity, and even the discipline to take a giant leap for humankind.

Exploration Day is a day to celebrate where we've been, but most importantly, where we could go if we all put our minds and energy together for a common goal. It's both a celebration of our past as well as our future.

Exploration Day is a day to celebrate us - how far we have come, and how far we can go.  A federal holiday dedicated to the increase of scientific and historical literacy, while annually kindling the hardwired exploratory spirit of all humankind.

Perhaps the last Columbus Day in American history (2012) will be Stage 3.  Stay Tuned and see you on the other side!