Today's DAR
I was overjoyed to be one of 60 dedicated Daughters who took part in the hybrid 99th Hawaii State Conference conducted on Saturday at the beautiful Aloha Chapter House in Honolulu (and streamed online). What a pleasure to meet these women and learn more about the vibrant ways that they are fulfilling our mission. With fewer than 400 members, they posted an astounding 10,801 hours of community service during the pandemic. Mahalo to them for an outstanding year and their overwhelming hospitality!
Aloha and Mahalo from Hawaii
Hawaii State Regent Jane Mann and her team arranged and conducted a worthwhile morning of reports, presentations and fellowship. Among the awardees was NDAR Medal of Honor Recipient Janna Hoehn, who has spent the last 12 years working to collect more than 58,00 photos of Vietnam Veterans as part of the “Faces Never Forgotten” project to document the men and women who are listed on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. In addition, she has raised funds to support homeless vets in Maui, where she lives. What an amazing legacy Ms. Hoehn has created! Also recognized were Alicia Allen, the Hawaii Outstanding Teacher of American History, and Rosetta Hiranaga, a Haleakala Chapter member, who received an Excellence in Historic Preservation Certificate and Medal for her work to prepare a digital archive of her chapter’s many records.
Mrs. Mann’s State Regent’s Project is the restoration of the Merci Train, one boxcar of a train of 49 French railroad box cars filled with tens of thousands of gifts of gratitude from at least that many individual French citizens. They were showing their appreciation for the more than 700 American box cars of relief goods sent to them by individual Americans in 1948. The Merci Train arrived in New York harbor on Feb. 3, 1949, and each of the 48 American states at that time received one of the gift-laden box cars. The 49th box car was shared by Washington D.C. and the Territory of Hawaii.
Members, New Horizons and Committee Leader course graduates were also recognized and a brief history of Aloha Chapter (hostess for the meeting) was provided. Aloha Chapter was founded in the Territory of Hawaii on March 5, 1897 – exactly 125 years before the state conference and more than six decades before this island paradise became a state! It owns a lovely 1926 chapter house that includes an impressive 6,000-volume DAR Memorial Library for genealogical research. A beautiful portrait of Chapter Founder Agnes Hall Boyd Judd (National Number 17451) watched over those who gathered in person for the conference – how pleased she would surely be to know that the chapter she founded is flourishing and that technology allowed the important work of the Society to continue. Mrs. Judd was born in Watertown, NY, and was married to the Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii (1874-1900); her son served as governor of the island in the 1930s. Interestingly, 11 of the 13 charter members of Aloha Chapter were directly connected to missionaries, the first of whom came to Hawaii from Boston in 1820.
Thanks to thoughtful and knowledgeable local Daughters, the trip afforded me the opportunity to visit sites from the stunningly beautiful 50th state where so much important history has occurred. We mourned the dead and remembered the survivors by visiting Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial; and later toured the Punch Bowl, where more than 50,000 veterans (and their families) are laid to rest. An Aloha Chapter member shared the moving story of her father, a Vietnam pilot who is listed as MIA on the wall there. Our journey continued with visits to honor the sites/crews/sacrifices of the USS Nevada, Utah and Oklahoma, as well as the POW MIA Accounting Agency here at Pearl Harbor. It is impossible to visit these places and not feel the weight of history, knowing the events that changed the world played out here.
We even got to visit the USS Missouri, which served through WWII, the Korean War and the Gulf War for a 51-year career. Launched from the Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn in 1944, “Mighty Mo” entered the Pacific Theatre in early 1945. She participated in the invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She joined in on air strikes and shore bombardment on mainland Japan. Most famously, the battleship hosted the surrender ceremony of Japan on Sept. 2, 1945.
Another highlight was a tour of the Iolani Palace, the only Royal palace located in the United States and the official residence and capital of the last ruling monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawaii. It is a preservation success story after decades of restoration. Afterward, we were treated to seeing some of the scenic coastline of Oahu. Breathtaking!
Please visit my DAR President General Facebook Page in order to see many more photographs from this exceptional visit to Hawaii. It’s easy to understand how I hate to depart this warm, welcoming and wonderful place – but many exciting state visits lie ahead in the weeks to come. I look forward to every single one of them, and especially the opportunity to meet our Daughters across the country.
