2010 proved to be an exciting, activity-filled year of celebration of Thomas Paine's life, accomplishments and legacy. Listed below are just some of the events in which Thomas Paine Friends members played a part.

UNITED STATES -- ARKANSAS

• John F. Makens and Cheryl Cerell made a presentation, "In Celebration of Thomas Paine: The Age of Reason and the Reason Paine is Forgotten," to the meeting of the Freethinkers of Fayetteville, Arkansas, 28 February.

• Community Action Television (channel 18) of Fayetteville, Arkansas, broadcast the program, "On the Air -- The Legacy of Thomas Paine," hosted by Richard S. Drake. John F. Makens, well-known for his tireless efforts to bring public awareness to Paine's great achievements, made a convincing and engaging case for the forgotten founding father. This program was aired on the 23rd, 24th and 28th of August.

UNITED STATES -- CALIFORNIA (Downey)

• Bernice Mancedbo held an open house at her home to celebrate Thomas Paine's birthday (29 January)

UNITED STATES -- CALIFORNIA (Pasadena)

• The Thomas Paine Society held a festive event with a theme harking to Paine's times at the White Hart Inn in England, the Headstrong award for debate-discussion on social and political questions of the day. (Spring)

UNITED STATES -- CALIFORNIA (Santa Barbara)

• Nine Thomas Paine Friends members came together to commemorate Thomas Paine's birthday, holding a pasta pot-luck and a short reading from a paper written by James Tepfer on Paine's life. The group then viewed an interview of University of Wisconsin history professor Harvey Kaye, author of Thomas Paine: The Promise of America (29 January)

UNITED STATES -- FLORIDA

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UNITED STATES -- MASSACHUSETTS (Amherst)

• Members met at Jones Library to hear presentations by Irwin Speigelman (The American Crisis I), Stephen Kaplan (the Paine-Burke debate over the French Revolution), Mary Wentworth (discussing Howard Zinn's questions about whether the American Revolution was a necessary or good war; and ed Wilfert (on Paine's scientific and technical endeavors) -- (30 January)

UNITED STATES -- NEW JERSEY

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UNITED STATES -- NEW YORK (New York City)

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UNITED STATES -- NEW YORK (New Rochelle)

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UNITED STATES -- PENNSYLVANIA (Philadelphia)

• Ed Dodson presented his two-part lecture on Thomas Paine at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Temple University, as part of a course he developed titled "Five Champions of Liberty." The four other historical figures covered in this course are Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Henry George and Winston Churchill. The course emphasizes their views on the rights of individuals to the ownership of nature and what, if any, obligations individuals have to society in return for such rights.
  
• Adam Altman as Thomas Paine, at the Moonstone Threater in Philadelphia. View this segment of his portrayal of Paine, expressing Paine's views on economic justice and the rights of the community to the rent of land.
  
  
  
  

UNITED STATES -- WEST VIRGINIA (Morgantown)

• The Thomas Paine Society had a chili and corn bread dinner plus discuss of the later years of Paine's life. (Spring)

UNITED KINGDOM -- LEWES

• The Humanists organized a day trip to Lewes, including a lecture about Thomas Paine at Paine's former home (now a museum). 3 July.

UNITED KINGDOM -- THETFORD

• The Thetford Society, which organized the Thomas Paine 200 legacy Committee, announced the publication of the Tom Paine Bicentenary Papers, a collection of toasts, talks and sermons given in the course of the Tom Paine 200 Celebrations last year.