Service to America From Home

Denise Doring VanBuren, President General

March 31, 2020

Sincere thanks to all our members at work across America serving on the front lines in medicine, emergency response, retail supply chain and other essential services! We are all grateful for your personal sacrifices to sustain the rest of us.

I am also immensely proud of members who are staying at home to help slow the spread of the Coronavirus while also continuing to volunteer. While social distancing practices prohibit many of the community service activities with which chapters are typically involved, there are still many ways that you can spread a little DAR sunshine right from home.

Our National Project

As we continue to hear about hospitals, childcare facilities, nursing homes and clinics experiencing a shortage of medical masks, many of our members have stepped forward to participate in our official National Service to America Project From Home. Members are sewing and donating homemade masks and other items to institutions in order to help conserve the limited numbers of medical-grade masks for patient care.

Please visit the Service to America Committee Facebook page to see what other members are doing and to learn how you might help. (Please also note that it is critically important that members first contact the local facilities to determine if they are accepting donations of homemade masks and to obtain guidance for sewing them.) If you can sew, we’d like you to be a part of this nationwide effort. Gather some fun fabric and elastic and contact medical facilities in your area to see how you can help the mask shortage brought about by COVID-19.

To help track the combined impact that DAR members are making, we have begun a self-reported count of homemade masks sewn by DAR volunteers across the country. As of March 31, more than 15,000 masks have been sewn, in addition to other needed items. You can use this online page to log your participation: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DARSTA2020. We also ask you to please send photos of you and your projects; we are also especially interested in receiving photos of the receiving personnel wearing your masks. Post your photos to the Service to America Committee Facebook page or send them to [email protected].

Please also remember that the DAR Service to America Facebook Page is a public page that you can share with your friends and family who aren’t members. This is a great way to demonstrate all the wonderful service accomplished by Today's DAR -- and to attract new women to our important mission.

Other Ways to Serve

I’ve been so proud to see on social media our Daughters many other efforts to support local communities and our DAR mission during this difficult time. Our DAR Project Patriot Committee continues to support active duty military from afar through the Operation Bean of Life care packages (following appropriate Post Office social distancing policies or scheduling home pick ups from USPS.com). The committee has also contacted the U.S. Navy about offering service to the Mercy and Comfort Hospital ships docked in Los Angeles and New York City to help fight the Coronavirus pandemic. More information will be provided on the DAR Project Patriot Committee Facebook group once it is obtained.

Don’t forget about opportunities to help those in need, e.g. veterans who may require assistance or just thoughtfulness. Can you gather extra items and make a surprise porch delivery? How about remembering your mail carrier and delivery drivers? They are handling so many packages, and their safety should be a priority, too. Creating small, travel-sized care packages and leaving them on doorsteps can reassure these Americans that they are not forgotten. With children being home schooled, why not use an online platform to read aloud to your favorite student, in support of our Literacy Committee? Parents will likely welcome this respite from their new-found homeschooling responsibilities. If you like to walk, as I do, then put on some gloves, bring along a trash bag and pick up roadside litter to support our Conservation Committee. In other words: find your own way to bring some sunshine during these dark days.

Here are two simple ways that I ask every member to be a part of our efforts from home:

Fly your Flag of the United States of America with pride as a show of support for our nation; and
Reach out to fellow DAR members by phone, especially those who may be at a higher risk or living alone. While I encourage you all to practice safe social distancing, reaching out to others by phone, text or video chat can help ease loneliness and anxiousness; we all know that a few kind words can go a long way during difficult times.

Finally, and most important: take care of yourself and your families. We will beat this pandemic, and we will do it together as Americans. Thank you for being a part of Today’s DAR!

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