America 250! American Revolution Experience - Traveling Exhibit

We are coming up on the three-year anniversary of the collaboration between The Daughters of the American Revolution and the American Battlefield Trust to host the American Revolution Experience - Traveling Exhibit. This alliance has provided the American public with the opportunity to experience the history of the founding of this country, like it's never been seen before.

Once the opportunity to host the traveling exhibit was announced, chapters and states from coast to coast signed up to take advantage of the opportunity to share the exhibit with their communities. While the enthusiasm to host the exhibit was welcome, it did cause some challenges, i.e., how to manage the over 400 requests, how to minimize travel time and maximize viewing time, and how to reduce the astronomical shipping costs. Each of these complex issues and others had to be worked through. 
 

We come to you today to make another request. With nearly 400 chapters still on the wait list to host the exhibit, it is not going to be possible to accommodate all the requests. The term "geographically saturated" refers to multiple hosting requests within a very close geographical area. We are hoping chapters will be open to share hosting the exhibit with other chapters when within a 50-mile radius.

Two chapters in Idaho, the Pioneer Chapter of Boise and the Ee-dah-how Chapter of Nampa both submitted requests to host the exhibit. Both chapters are located within the Treasure Valley and within 50 miles of each other. The America 250! committee representatives that submitted the requests decided to host the exhibit together, thus eliminating the need to move the exhibit from Boise to Nampa. After further discussion, the two committee chairs thought it would be a good opportunity to share the fun and invited all the chapters in the Treasure Valley to participate in the planning of the opening night reception and hosting the exhibit. 
 

The group effort of multiple chapters has provided the opportunity to include some amazing features to the event. Not only is this group of dedicated daughters planning an amazing event, but these ladies have also forged new friendships. DAR is friendship, and this committee has increased their ties of DAR service and friends.

When chapters receive the email that the exhibit is coming to their area, we ask you to please explore the opportunity of working together with neighboring chapters. The collaboration between chapters will help DAR reach more communities, thus fulfilling the DAR goal of education and historic preservation.