The third Annual Spirit of Democracy Celebration & Banquet is on November 5, 2022, at the Osage Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
The region of Southeast Missouri played a large role at the beginning of the Stars and Stripes. During the Civil War, ten soldiers used the Bloomfield Herald offices to print the first Stars and Stripes publication. The mission of the National Stars and Stripes Museum & Library is the documentation, preservation, and communication of the iconic story of the Stars and Stripes newspaper and the commitment and service of the Stripers, our military, and everyday citizens.