Teaching Ronald Reagan’s Values in America’s Heartland

By Kyle Ferrebee, Program Director of the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home

The Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home, nestled near the Rock River in Dixon, Illinois, is a historic landmark, national treasure, and the place where President Ronald Reagan was shaped into the beloved and courageous American hero revered worldwide.

As our 40th President said of his hometown,

All of us have to have a place we go back to. Dixon is that place for me. There was the life that has shaped my body and mind for all the years to come.

In 2020, Young America’s Foundation stepped forward to protect and preserve this historic Presidential property and ensure that a key Reagan site is neither lost to history nor preserved through taxpayer dollars. YAF now carries on the important work of protecting this historic property, which was managed and cared for by the Ronald Reagan Home Preservation Foundation since 1980.

As radical leftists and educational institutions across the country seek to erase America’s history by tearing down the statues and legacies of figures like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, YAF seeks to preserve the ideas and accomplishments of those who advanced freedom for future generations.

In addition to serving as a venue for visitors from around the world, the Reagan Boyhood Home allows YAF to establish a beachhead for youth outreach in the Midwest, providing students, families, supporters, and allies in the region with greater access to YAF’s programs, trainings, and educational (Continued on page 26)

The Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home

For 60 years, Young America’s Foundation has worked with President Ronald Reagan and his family to inspire young people with the ideas of individual freedom, free enterprise, a strong national defense, and traditional values.

In 1998, YAF stepped forward to save Reagan’s 688-acre Rancho del Cielo in California with the blessings of the Reagan family. Building on this deep relationship, in 2020, YAF acquired President Reagan’s boyhood home in Dixon, Illinois, from the Ronald Reagan Home Preservation Foundation. This transition was possible due to the committed leaders of the Preservation Foundation who maintained and operated the Reagan Boyhood Home for decades prior to YAF’s acquisition. These individuals include Marilyn Shippert, Patrick Gorman, Jeff Renee, Joe Rudolphi, Jerry Schnake, Alex Paschal, Jennifer Streit, Paige Toms, Linda Frana, and Tom Demmer, among many other patriotic stewards of Reagan’s legacy. As the caretaker of this Presidential property, YAF is passing on our 40th President’s values to young people, particularly those across the Midwest. Growing up in Dixon—in this modest home built in 1891—was a formative experience for Reagan. It was there that he developed the values that would guide the rest of his life. To learn more about the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home, please visit reaganhome.org or contact Program Director Kyle Ferrebee at kferrebee@yaf.org or 815-288-5176.

Young America’s Foundation college students from across the Midwest enjoy a tour of President Ronald Reagan’s childhood home in Dixon, Illinois.

YAF President Governor Scott Walker addresses participants during YAF’s inaugural college seminar at the Reagan Boyhood Home in early 2022.

During YAF’s Freedom Unveiled Seminar in Dixon, former CEO of CKE Restaurants Andy Puzder encourages students to understand and promote the merits of free enterprise. (Continued from page 24) resources to help advance conservative ideas throughout the region and across the country.

Ultimately, our vision is to establish a permanent campus in Dixon that provides dedicated programmatic space, a visitor center and theater, high-quality exhibit galleries, curatorial archives, and more opportunities for young people and other visitors to appreciate the values and accomplishments of Dixon’s hometown President.

Much like Rancho del Cielo—Ronald Reagan’s ranch and the only home he owned while serving as President— the President’s boyhood home will become a significant component of YAF’s efforts to teach future generations about the timeless ideas of individual freedom, free enterprise, and traditional values that the Midwest imbued in our 40th President.

Since acquiring the Reagan Boyhood Home, YAF has quickly launched a series of programs in Dixon to grow our outreach in the community and among young people across the region.

On the heels of our sold-out inaugural high school program—the American Exceptionalism Seminar—in Dixon in 2021, YAF organized our annual 9/11: Never Forget Project at the Boyhood Home. Foundation staff led more than 100 local students and community members in organizing a solemn flag display and memorial service to honor those who were murdered by radical Islamists on September 11, 2001.

In early 2022, YAF held unique seminars for college and high school students, educating them on a wide range of topics, including the merits of free enterprise, myths of income inequality, case for American exceptionalism, importance of religious freedom, and additional key topics that are part of our national debate today. To serve even broader audiences, we are also in the early stages of developing programs for educators, middle school students, and homeschool associations throughout the Midwest. These efforts are just the beginning of what we hope will be a longstanding and fruitful future in America’s Heartland. The Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home is a fitting educational venue for young Americans to learn the significance of President Reagan and his principles, and we invite fellow patriotic Americans to join Young America’s Foundation on this journey.