2025 End of the Year Message
Terrance Beasley
Founder and
Chairman of the Board
Front Range Buffalo Soldiers
I hope you, your family, friends, and neighbors have had a joyous winter holiday season. As is typical now in the run-up to New Year’s Day, somewhere in your YouTube subscriptions or other social media follows, you’ll be prompted to reflect on the events of 2025. I’d like to take a moment to celebrate with you the victories Front Range Buffalo Soldiers encountered this year and our aspirations for 2026.
Our foundational achievement this year occurred on June 23rd, when the IRS officially determined that Front Range Buffalo Soldiers qualifies as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt public charity. This mid-year notice was one of the remaining external approvals to set the organization on a forward trajectory. The dedicated members of the Buffalo Soldiers Community Memorial Committee began introducing the Colorado Springs philanthropic community, as well as various civic and military leaders in the Pikes Peak region, to the mission of Front Range Buffalo Soldiers: allowing Colorado primary grade students the opportunity to discover real, inclusive American History through an immersive presentation experience and within classroom learning opportunities presented to educators as toolkits with digital and physical curriculum in alignment with Colorado Board of Education standards.
The email requests are starting to arrive in our inboxes. In the 2nd half of 2025, representatives of Front Range Buffalo Soldiers presented our mission presentation to over a dozen community groups. One key community presentation was timed to the 159th anniversary of the creation of the four U.S. Army regiments that would eventually be known as the Buffalo Soldiers. This event included a video acknowledging the strong support of the memorial committee in launching the public educational focus of Front Range Buffalo Soldiers.
We presented the first field test of our immersive model presentations in a local elementary school and at two public presentations in August at Great Sand Dunes National Park and at the Fort Garland Historical Site.
A Board of Directors has been elected, and committees are forming. This includes the curriculum committee, which is already drafting rubrics and testing educators’ acceptance of our toolkits. Some generous donations have been made, including a technology grant from the El Pomar Foundation, a grant for historical artifacts from the Pikes Peak Area Rotary Endowment (PPARE), and a technology equipment donation from the National Cybersecurity Center in Colorado Springs. All of that has been in the last 6 months!
Chairman
Secretary
Treasurer
Vice-Chairman