What We Do
Shown above is a Junior holiday luncheon attended by Juniors and Junior supporters of several Kansas
chapters, including this one. Juniors collected for Toys for Tots at the event. (Photos courtesy Deana Sage.)
Pictured L-R: Trudy Watson (associate member, Topeka member), Karla McMillan, Alice Bachand, Mary
Thoman, Donna Merrick, Peggi Barrett, Sherie Coulter (prospective member), Shirley Coupal, and Betty Coupal.
Chapter members and guests enjoy a Flag Day field trip at the Pawnee Indian Museum at Republic.
The Pawnee Indian Village and monument site of Zebulon Pike raising the first US flag in Kansas
was the first preservation project supported by the Kansas Daughters in 1899. The Kansas State
Historical Society, with support of the Kansas Federation of Women’s Clubs, of which the Kansas DAR
was part of at that time, dedicated the site in 1901. Today the museum encloses the floor of one of
the largest excavated lodges. The imprints of other lodges are found in the surrounding area. The
village dates from the 1820s, when over forty lodges housed more than two thousand Pawnees living on
the bluffs above the Republican River valley. It is the only Pawnee Village to survive modern cultivation
in the Central Plains. The Pawnee Nation considers the site a scared place and has lent its support by
providing artifacts, historic Pawnee photographs, oral history from elders, and a Pawnee sacred bundle,
which has never been opened. The museum gallery has several prints of George Catlin’s 1832 portraits
of Plains Indians, including Pawnee. The durability of a buffalo hide and the silky softness of a
beaver pelt are among the hands-on-displays."
Nathan Edson Chapter member Charlotte Stagner was honored for her 73 years of DAR service
at the chapter's Presidents’ Day Tea on February 20, 2006. Charlotte has the second longest
membership in the Kansas Society DAR. She lives in Clay Center and has been a continuous
member of the Nathan Edson Chapter since it was organized in 1933.
Shown above: Charlotte Stager (left) and Nathan Edson Chapter Regent Peggi Barrett.
The chapter has sponsored the DAR Good Citizens Award and Scholarship Contest since 1946. Open to
high school seniors, the program encourages and rewards the qualities of good citizenship. One student
is selected from each participating school by the school’s faculty or counselor for their dependability,
service, leadership, and patriotism. Students may choose to enter the scholarship contest or serve only
as their school’s Good Citizen for the year. An essay is written within a supervised time frame, without
prior knowledge of the topic and without benefit of research material, giving the students an opportunity
to express their own knowledge and opinions. Essays are judged by a committee of non-DAR members.
The chapter's 2006 DAR Good Citizens winners were honored at the annual President's Day tea, held
in Clay Center on February 20, 2006. Twenty-eight members and guests enjoyed the late afternoon
reception. Pictured above: 2006 DAR Good Citizens – (l-r) Bill Allen, Wakefield HS; Kara Cott,
CCCHS; Riclyn Resco, Clyde-Clifton HS; and Kelly Matlack, Washington HS. After a difficult judging,
because of four extremely good essays, Riclyn Resco's essay was selected to be sent to the state
contest. Each chapter winner received a certificate, pin, poster, wallet card, and a monetary gift.
For information about the DAR Good Citizen Scholarship Contest,
contact chapter committee chairman, Alice Bachand.
The chapter was proud to have one of its own, Stephanie
Valent, selected as 2002 Kansas Outstanding Junior member.
To read more about Stephanie, click here.
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