{"id":11451,"date":"2024-01-17T09:08:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T14:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=11451"},"modified":"2024-01-19T09:29:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T14:29:57","slug":"freedom-turns-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2024\/01\/17\/freedom-turns-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom Turns 20"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TWO DECADES OF TRUE BLUE SPIRIT<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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Georgia Southern Mascot Freedom Turns 20<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This month, Georgia Southern University is proudly celebrating the 20th birthday of Freedom, our esteemed bald eagle mascot. Found injured and unable to survive in the wild, Freedom was rescued and brought to our university in 2004 and is now an irreplaceable member of Eagle Nation, inspiring Georgia Southern fans from around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December, as part of the birthday celebration, the University raised thousands of dollars in gifts for the Center for Wildlife Education in his honor. While final amounts weren\u2019t available at press time, an anonymous donor matched gifts up to $20,000, making a significant investment in Freedom and the other eagles, raptors, reptiles and waterfowl that live at the Center. In addition, Georgia Southern created a line of special Freedom merchandise featuring limited, unique designs, the sales of which will benefit Freedom and the Center for Wildlife Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he continues to majestically take flight before each home football game, creating what many still consider the \u201cmost exciting 30 seconds in college football,\u201d be sure to say Happy Birthday to Freedom. His presence at Georgia Southern athletic events, community gatherings and educational programs underscores the University\u2019s commitment to wildlife conservation and education and continues to inspire us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Photos by AJ Henderson and Jonathan Chick<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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TWO DECADES OF TRUE BLUE SPIRIT Georgia Southern Mascot Freedom Turns 20 This month, Georgia Southern University is proudly celebrating the 20th birthday of Freedom, our esteemed bald eagle mascot. Found injured and unable to survive in the wild, Freedom was rescued and brought to our university in 2004 and is now an irreplaceable member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"wp-custom-template-post-with-feature-top-section","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-11451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-fall-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}