Ripples of the miraculous but forgotten Oxi Day story are moving around the globe following the First Annual Washington Oxi Day Foundation Celebration on October 27 — 28, 2011.

Over 8,000 individuals watched online Radio Free Asia‘s reports to learn what it means for the heroine of Burma, Noble Prize Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to have received the 2011 Oxi Day Battle of Crete Award. (View one of these reports here.) This award is given by the Foundation to a woman who demonstrated the same courage shown by the women of Crete during the Axis invasion of the island of Crete. Aung San Suu Kyi had to accept the award via video message because she is not permitted by the government of Burma to freely move in and out of the country

Another nearly 9,000 people from America and abroad visited the web site of the National Endowment for Democracy, which prominently featured the speech delivered by its President, Carl Gershman, at the Oxi Day black tie dinner. (View here.) Gershman presented the Foundation’s 2011 Oxi Day Award to Jamel Bettaieb of Tunisia, one of the young men who showed Oxi Day-like courage as he helped light the spark of the events known today as the “Arab Spring.”

Opinion leaders, policymakers and community leaders came together to remind America and the world of one of modern history’s most consequential examples of David vs. Goliath courage and celebrate today’s heroes who display similar courage for democracy and freedom. Through this effort, the story of Oxi Day is beginning to reemerge into the consciousness of freedom-loving people everywhere.

Hundreds of Washington Oxi Day Foundation‘s primary targets – policymakers and opinion leaders – learned the Oxi Day Story as they nominated individuals to receive Oxi Day awards and associated prize money. Dozens more, ranging from MSNBC host and author Chris Matthews to former Senate Majority Leader and Republican Presidential candidate Bob Dole, learned detailed accounts the Oxi Day story through their participation in Foundation events at the National WWII Memorial, Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, American University, St. Sophia Cathedral and the black tie dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel.