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Celebrating 125 Years of Service to America

Lynn Young, President General

This year the Daughters of the American Revolution is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the founding of our National Society and there has never been a more exciting time to be a member of DAR! Building upon 125 years of service to America, today’s DAR is vital, engaging and more important than ever before. I am so excited to launch this special anniversary celebration and to spread the story of DAR all year long.

Watch this special video to learn about how you and your chapter can join in on the historic quasquicentennial celebrations.

The DAR officially formed on October 11, 1890, and 125 years later we will join together in a nationwide effort to illustrate our National Society’s collective commitment to America by serving our communities on the National DAR Day of Service, October 11, 2015. On this day, I encourage chapters from coast to coast to complete service projects within their local communities, as we unite to demonstrate the combined impact of our DAR mission.

Plan a worthy service project that will engage your chapter members in a hands-on, visible and meaningful way to benefit your local community. Promote your service event and invite community members, prospective members and the media to join you. Remember to take lots of photographs to share on social media, your chapter websites and email them to [email protected].

Use the occasion of our 125th anniversary to celebrate and demonstrate your chapter’s impact on your community and DAR’s impact on America!

As we look back on the incredible history of our organization, we are also celebrating the amazing women who made the DAR what it is today, and where it will go in the future. It’s YOU, our members, that we are celebrating, and we want to hear from you about your unique DAR experiences.

Please take this brief survey to tell us your DAR story so we can learn a little more about you. The survey is anonymous but if you feel comfortable sharing your DAR stories with others you may choose to identify yourself.

Do you enjoy telling your DAR story and want to share it with others? We encourage you to video record yourself describing why DAR is special to you and email it to us at [email protected].

If you submit your video DAR story before May 1, 2015, you will be entered in a drawing to receive a Celebrate 125! Commemorative Plate.

What's your DAR story? Tell us yourself so we can share why DAR is still relevant 125 years after our founding!

In order to help chapters plan for this exciting year we have set up resources on the website that offer ideas and activities. The public 125th anniversary page includes slideshows, videos and other information to learn more about our history. The Celebrate 125! Committee page offers chapters tools to plan and promote anniversary activities throughout 2015. To keep up with all of the 125th anniversary celebrations I encourage you to subscribe to American Spirit as each issue will contain special features and articles relating to DAR history and our 125 years of service to America. In addition, the DAR Store has a variety of commemorative merchandise for sale to serve as special keepsakes for members.

I look forward to celebrating with you as we Honor our Heritage, Focus on the Future and Celebrate America!