EDUCATION
DAR GOOD CITIZENS
At our February meeting each year, our chapter recognizes several DAR Good Citizens, high school seniors who have been identified by their schools as leaders who exemplify the qualities of a good citizen of the United States. The award was established by the DAR in 1934. There is also a scholarship contest in which these high school seniors may participate; the students read their outstanding essays at our February meeting. Further information about The DAR Good Citizens Award and Scholarship Contest may be found here. ↗
These 1937 Good Citizens included Grace Picton (first row, far left), who would later become a 50 plus year member of the DAR, and our John Mc Knitt Alexander Chapter, NSDAR.
CHILDREN OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
The John Mc Knitt Alexander Society of the National Society Children of the American Revolution ↗ National Society Children of the American Revolution (N.S.C.A.R. or C.A.R.) is sponsored by our chapter. We are proud to encourage patriotism early on for future generations. Several of our current members began their association with the DAR through their membership in a local C.A.R. Society.
Is your child eligible for membership in the C.A.R.? C.A.R. Membership Inquiries
NSDAR CONSERVATION AWARD - 2021
In March 2021, NSDAR honored one of its longest-serving members and our chapter member with the NSDAR Conservation Award, presented at the Texas Society DAR (TXDAR) Virtual State Conference. Her lifetime of conservation work would have been amazing in itself, but it was her thirty-year effort to bring a botanical garden to Houston that was the impetus for this national award.
The Houston Botanic Garden opened in September 2020, days before a hurricane’s direct hit on Houston, and survived the historic deep freeze of February 2021. This gift to the City of Houston is a $30M private-public initiative to bring Houston a world-class botanical garden and will be an urban destination for refreshment amongst beautifully curated themed zones and natural prairie and wetlands areas, a center for conservation and botanical education, a creative play space for children, and a beautiful backdrop for important life events as an entertainment venue.
TANGLEWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL HISTORY DAY
Since 2018, the chapter has supported History Day at Tanglewood Middle School in Houston. The school is named for the neighborhood that was developed in the 1950s by William Giddings Farrington, the father of one of our long-time members. Our member was reading "Tanglewood Tales" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and she suggested naming the new neighborhood after this book.
The American history teachers at this school, in cooperation with the rest of the staff, put on an interactive and exciting History Day for their sixth through eighth-graders. American history-focused activities include candle-making, baking molasses cookies, “churning” butter, and building log cabins.
LITERACY
As part of the DAR Day of Service, each year our chapter members volunteer at Books Between Kids, sorting books that at the year’s end will find their way into the hands of at-risk children who generally have no other access to books.
Books Between Kids is a non-profit organization founded in 2012 to serve elementary-aged children in the Houston area who have limited access to books at home, particularly over the summer months. Books Between Kids sets up "book fair" events at numerous elementary schools in May where the students are able to select books to help them build their own home libraries, all at no cost to the children.
Our chapter is proud to have recently awarded our NSDAR Community Service Award to the founders of Books Between Kids.
WOMEN’S ISSUES – FIGHTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Houston is tackling the problem of sex trafficking with a partnership of city, county, and church alliances. Freedom Church Alliance, a consortium of churches dedicated to freeing victims of human trafficking, has developed a strategic, unified, and coordinated plan to assist survivors of human trafficking. Their GoBox toolkit trains volunteers with knowledge on human trafficking, empowers them to take action, and connects them with organizations where they can make a difference.
Our chapter collects supplies and raises money to fill “Go Bags” that will be passed out to a survivor of human trafficking via law enforcement. Each Go Bag holds essentials that a survivor needs after rescue: a change of clothes (tops, bottoms, undergarments, and flip flops) plus basic toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, shampoo, conditioner).
RICE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP
In 1918, the members of the chapter created a small scholarship for a student at The Rice Institute, a new college on the edge of the prairie south of town. Ruby Belle South, born in San Marcos in 1898, attended the Rice Institute in its earliest years, graduating in 1919. She was able to attend in part with the assistance of a $250 Scholarship provided by our chapter (over $3000 in current dollars). This was the first scholarship awarded to a woman at Rice. The chapter continued to support her education at the UT Medical School in Galveston. Dr. Ruby Belle South Lowery served as an obstetrician-gynecologist in Laredo, Texas, delivering an estimated 20,000 babies over her career.
The ladies of the chapter decided in 1919 that one student was not enough. Through chapter member donations, rummage sales, and solicitations from friends in the Houston community, the chapter raised substantial funds for one of the first endowed scholarships at The Rice Institute. It was presented to the University at Commencement in 1922.
A recipient in later years of the chapter’s scholarship was Fannie Bess Emory. Fannie Bess became a member of our chapter and served as regent. After her death, her family established a new scholarship in her memory at Rice.
Rice University continues to manage and distribute proceeds from both scholarships.
And one more note on Dr. Ruby: She too became a member of the DAR in Laredo. In 1996, at the age of 97 Dr. Ruby returned to a John Mc Knitt Alexander Chapter, NSDAR, meeting to thank chapter members for the helping hand she had received almost seventy years before. After her death, her family established a new scholarship in her name at Texas A&M International in Laredo, citing the influence of the DAR scholarship on their grandmother’s life.