Submitted by ADeFrancesco on

More Exciting Details About Celebrate America Night

Lynn Young, President General

Celebrate America Night on Friday, June 27 at the Grand Hyatt will be a fun evening event designed to celebrate members’ outstanding commitment to volunteerism and introduce Daughters to additional service opportunities.

Throughout the event there will be fun, educational and interactive activities and discussions. Members can wear cocktail attire (dressy attire but not a formal gown), enjoy a beverage from the cash bar, shop from President General’s Project Sales and Junior Shoppe and mingle with other guests.

In addition to these on-going activities, we will have two presentations during the evening by Bennett Greenspan, Family Tree DNA President and CEO, and Terry Richey, National Trust for Historic Preservation Chief Marketing Officer. I am sure both of these presentations will be interesting and informative and there will be an opportunity for members to ask them questions.

Various DAR committees and a few outside organizations will have information tables where members can learn about volunteer service opportunities which they can in turn count towards their Celebrate America! hours.

There will be a dedicated service event for members to participate in the night of the event which we are coordinating with our service organization partner on the event, Blue Star Families. Members will have the opportunity to sign and write cards to military families through Blue Star Families’ Operation Appreciation. This program encourages and organizes the writing of letters to military families, allowing volunteers to make a personal connection with those military families who also sacrifice so much for our country. Members can choose to write a card to the parent, spouse or child of a military member, or to a veteran of the armed services.

Additionally, Celebrate America Night will include a children’s book drive which will benefit Blue Star Families’ Books on Bases program. This program, which was created to positively impact the lives of military children through the power of reading, donates books to military base libraries. I hope all members attending will please consider bringing a children’s book with you to Washington, D.C. and dropping it off in the Blue Star Families room at Celebrate America Night. Or for those of you who don’t want to travel with books, there is a Barnes and Noble just two blocks from the Grand Hyatt at 12th and F Street NW. The Books on Bases program is such a wonderful initiative and I am sure we will be able to make an impact with our book donation.

I am so looking forward to Celebrate America Night and I think it will be a great opportunity for members to learn more about various service projects in which they can become more involved. And frankly, I think we’re going to have a lot of fun on Friday night, too!