Dear Friends and Supporters,
As 2025 draws to a close, I am filled with gratitude and hope as we reflect on an extraordinary year for the Statue of Responsibility—living proof of Viktor Frankl’s timeless words:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
This year, in that sacred space of choice, you and thousands of others chose to act—and together we moved mountains.
Here are just a few of the milestones we reached in 2025:
- We permanently installed a stunning 15-foot bronze replica of the Statue of Responsibility on the campus of Viktor Frankl
- Alliant University in San Diego—the very university where Dr. Frankl taught after the war and after writing Man’s Search for Meaning. Now, every student who walks past it is reminded of Frankl’s core teaching:
- “Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth… The true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche… The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is.”
- At the dedication ceremony and related events, generous supporters raised thousands of dollars through on-site auctions—every bid an act of choosing responsibility over indifference.
- Most exciting of all: we are now finalizing the permanent site for the full 305-foot Statue of Responsibility in San Diego County, overlooking the bay, Coronado Island, and the San Diego skyline. Soon, this towering West Coast companion to the Statue of Liberty will stand as a daily reminder that, as Frankl wrote,
- “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked… Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life.”
2026 This will be the year we answer that question with action—the year we secure a site and begin raising the Statue itself.
We are so close, yet the final stretch is the most critical. To make 2026 the year this dream becomes reality, we need you now more than ever.
Please consider a special year-end gift to the Statue of Responsibility Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your fully tax-deductible contribution will help secure the site, complete permitting, and start construction so we can dedicate this monument in the months ahead.
You can donate securely at www.statueofresponsibility.org or by mailing a check payable to Statue of Responsibility Foundation.
As Viktor Frankl so powerfully said:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Today, I invite you to choose responsibility. Choose hope. Choose to help us build a landmark that will inspire generations to come.
With profound gratitude and unwavering belief in what we can accomplish together,
Stephen J. Cohen
President and CEO
Statue of Responsibility Foundation
