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National Daughters of the American Revolution
Florida State Society, NSDAR
Membership Information

Lakeland Chapter, DAR, members are:

Mission Driven:
Consistent with the mission of the NSDAR, the Lakeland Chapter, DAR, places a premium on providing high-quality, in-depth historical education to our members and guests. To that end, our meetings are packed with interesting and engaging topics. Speakers are always of the highest quality, providing entertaining and substantive information. Our meetings are extremely interactive, often featuring games and activities with an educational purpose. In addition, at each meeting, a variety of members provide fascinating reports on topics including conservation, literacy promotion, veterans affairs, national defense, flag protocol, American Indian history, DAR schools, and the DAR Museum.

Adventurous:
In addition to the general meetings, our monthly Tea Talks, field trips and book club discussions are facilitated by volunteer members. Our volunteer hostesses oversee an afternoon tea during which attendees discuss articles in the DAR’s American Spirit magazine or books chosen with historical topics. We also participate in field trips throughout the year, some of which are coordinated with the book club to make the topics really come to life!

Committed to Education:
The education of young people is a serious focus of the Lakeland Chapter, DAR. We support NSDAR and Florida State Society Daughters of the American Revolution, (FSSDAR) scholarships, while concentrating on local students with the awarding of our own Good Citizenship Awards (open to high school students) and American History Essay Contest (open to middle school students). Our annual George Washington Tea is the usual time for honoring these awards winners, as their families, counselors, and school principals join us for an afternoon event in February.

The promotion of literacy is a key component of the Lakeland Chapter, DAR, mission. In 2020, we began an ongoing project of constructing and installing little lending libraries, offering them to neighborhoods throughout the city. The libraries’ stock is supported by the Private Vaughn Society, C.A.R.

Supportive of Our Veterans:
Our chapter supports various projects for veterans and soldiers. To honor Polk County soldiers, our chapter has sponsored memorial bricks at both Bartow’s Millennium Park and on Lakeland’s Vietnam War Monument. The chapter and members also donate to Haley House, which houses military families with family members in the nearby James A. Haley Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital. We award Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) medals to the outstanding cadets at five high schools and an ROTC medal to a cadet at Florida Southern College. We support Flight to Honor both monetarily and by our presence at welcoming ceremonies held at Lakeland’s Linder Airport. Since 2013, members of the Lakeland Chapter, DAR, have welcomed World War II, Korean and Vietnam Veterans home. In 2016, our chapter dedicated a monument in Lakeland’s Veteran Park to the women of Polk County who served in World War II (WWII). The chapter routinely participates in Veterans Day activities and observances. For several years, we have hosted a Food and Wine fundraiser, the proceeds of which have gone to veterans’ projects. At every meeting, members write notes of gratitude which are then mailed to veterans at the Veterans Hospital.

Blessed with a registrar who is an acclaimed national expert in the field, our chapter sponsors well-attended public genealogy workshops. March 2021 our chapter co-sponsored a workshop with the Polk History Center in Bartow which was part of its yearlong genealogical program. This chapter’s emphasis on genealogy is of long duration. The Jeannine Riley Minisci Collection of genealogy books, located in the DAR chapter house, in Rhinebeck, New York, was compiled by a member of the chapter. We also donate books to the Lakeland libraries and Bartow’s Historical and Genealogical Library.

Enthusiastic About Conservation:
Our chapter conservation committee supports and promotes various environmentally friendly projects. In addition, we enjoy field trips to local gardens and arboretums. Each year on Arbor Day it is our long-standing tradition to honor our deceased members with a memorial service and the planting of a tree by the City of Lakeland.

The Lakeland Chapter, DAR, is active on every level of the NSDAR structure: local, regional, state, and national. Our members routinely serve on committees at the state level. We send delegates to the FSSDAR State Conference and Fall Forum, as well as NSDAR Continental Congress held in Washington, D.C. Several of our members are recognized as subject matter experts and are DAR Museum Corresponding Docents. These ladies are sought-after speakers at chapters and for conferences throughout Florida.

Learn More

Contact us if you are interested in finding out more information about our chapter’s activities, including: 

  • NSDAR volunteer projects 
  • NSDAR historic preservation
  • Scholarship information
  • Constitution Week information
  • Honor Flight of West Central Florida