(Originally Published Saturday, January 18, 2014 – Blogger: One Daughter’s Point of View)
I’ve discovered that no matter what women’s organization I join, there always seems to be a preconceived notion about the women in the organization. What is that? Oh, you know…that we women really do nothing but sit around in our white gloves, pretty hats and drink tea. OK….you got me here. Maybe THIS organization – DAR – does have a tendency to have the occasional tea. And yes, there are events with white gloves and hats. But our teas aren’t social events. Our teas are celebratory events. We celebrate the good works we do in our community – but we rarely ever advertise those good works in the way we should. Therefore, our President General is asking that we Celebrate America!
In 2015, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) will celebrate its 125th anniversary. Eugenia Washington, one of the four founders of NSDAR, stated from the beginning that “We want a society founded on service.” NSDAR has lived up to Eugenia Washington’s desires, working fervently in the promotion of historic preservation, patriotism and education through chapters in the US and even overseas. We have committees established to facilitate the work of these three goals and they include Women’s Issues, DAR Service for Veterans, DAR Schools, Conservation and Literacy Promotion just to name a few.
Despite these good works, the DAR is often viewed as a purely lineal society and more social than service in nature. And this simply couldn’t be further from the truth. One of the attractions for me and others to the DAR is the ability to be passionately involved on various levels in service work. The committees are intertwined yet still offer variety; any member who joins can easily find a service project to be active in that matches with her own personal passions. From literacy to supporting military families to advocating for heart healthy women – DAR has something to match the passion of each member. And DAR advocates that each member exercise that passion by volunteering on some level. It can be as simple as clipping coupons and box tops for education to assisting with a project at a Fisher House.
When we Celebrate America! we are giving back to our communities – just taking the time to document the stories and share the success. We are also providing ideas for other chapters to use when they Celebrate America! in their community.
I am confident that Eugenia Washington would be proud that we have lived up to her aspirations as a service organization. Take time to Celebrate America! with us!
When Celebrate America! was unveiled, members were challenged to contribute one-million volunteer hours in their communities in the first year. So far, Daughters around the globe have documented almost three-million hours; additionally, our chapter has documented almost three times the target goal for our membership. Despite the outstanding result, I feel we have still significantly under-reported, which is true to the trend of DAR not to advertise its good works. In light of the over achievement in our first year by far exceeding the initial goal of one-million service hours in one-year, our President General is now challenging all Daughters to collectively achieve ten-million service hours over a three-year period. During our “110 Years in 110 Days” anniversary celebration, our chapter will Celebrate America! with projects to support literacy, veterans, and military families among others already planned.
A Robynn’s Chirps 