What is DAR?

Daughters of the American Revolution, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a non-profit, non-political volunteer women's service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America's future through better education for children.

Education

• DAR provides scholarships to outstanding students in the following categories: history, American history, political science, preservation, medicine, nursing, and occupational and physical therapy
• DAR gives over $1 million each year in financial support for schools in disadvantaged areas and for special needs children
• The American History Essay Contest encourages students to learn more about our country's history
• Through its Literacy Promotion Committee, DAR volunteers work with adults and children who wish to learn to read or improve their reading skills
• Each year, DAR honors an Outstanding Teacher of American History

Patriotism

• DAR volunteers annually serve over 60,000 hours at Veterans Administration medical centers
• Through the DAR Project Patriot Committee, the organization sends aid to hospitalized servicemen and women at the Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany
• DAR members provide refreshments and patriotic materials for new citizens at Naturalization Courts
• DAR's observation of important events in history, such as Constititution Week in September, encourages Americans to learn about their government
• DAR members encourage the correct display of the Flag of the United States of America

Historic Preservation

• History is in our own back yard, and over the years, the Mission Hills Chapter has taken a keen interest in the needs of the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway, Kansas. One of our efforts was to provide support to refurbish two rooms in the Mission's East Building.
  
  The Mission opened in October 1839, with Reverend Thomas Johnson, a Methodist missionary, at its helm. Indian children of many tribes were sent to this school to learn basic academics, manual arts, and agriculture. At the height of its activity, the mission consisted of more than 2,000 acres with sixteen buildings, including the three large brick structures which still stand, and an enrollment of nearly two hundred Indian boys and girls from the ages of five to twenty-three.
  
  Thomas Johnson was murdered at his home in Missouri on January 2, 1865, and is buried in the nearby Shawnee Methodist Mission cemetery, along with several members of his family. When the small cemetery needed repairs to its fence and grounds, Mission Hills Chapter joined in and participated in the effort to straighten the stones and improve the plantings, to beautify the cemetery.