When: September 17-23, 2020
What: Constitution Week
Why: To remind Americans to Celebrate the foundation of our country!
Daughters, in these unsettling times it is crucial for us to encourage all Americans to recognize the importance of and celebrate the continued existence of the Constitution of the United States. With its 27 Amendments, it needs to be understood that it is a living document to be respected as the Law of the Land!
It is the beginning of August, so you still have time to plan your chapter’s Constitution Week celebrations, if you have not already done so! We are basically still in a “virtual” rather than a “real” situation regarding meetings and social gatherings, so alternative ideas can be considered.
Many of the following suggestions have come from chapters in other states who have posted them on Facebook:
Proclamations
Contact your local mayor’s office, city council, and/or county supervisor’s office to request a Constitution Week Proclamation. A sample template is helpful to include in your request and can be found on the CSSDAR Website on the Commemorative Events page at the following link (after login):
Commemorative Events Constitution Week
The Proclamation can be displayed at your Constitution Week Table (in-person or “virtual” at home) or read at a chapter meeting.
Constitution Week Posters
Order posters from the NSDAR Store at the following link:
NSDAR Store Constitution Week Items
Ask permission of libraries, post offices, chambers of commerce, churches, temples, supermarkets, pharmacies and other businesses to place them in their windows.
Supply teachers with posters to display in their homes for the students to view and discuss during “virtual” online schooling; remember to include those parents who have decided to home school their children as a result of the pandemic.
Send photos of the posters to libraries, if they can’t put in their windows to put on their websites and to teachers if can’t deliver them in person.
Constitution Week “Flyers”
Create a simple Constitution Week “Flyer” and take to restaurants who offer take-out and delivery service; they can tape or staple the flyer to the bags of food! (especially pizza boxes!)
Take flyers to public parks and have Constitution Week on one side and info/map trail on the other side.
Teacher Resource Kits
Take lesson plans from Community Classroom database (Community Classroom webpage; search Community Classroom lesson plan database; DAR Lesson Plans, p. 3)
Add a Pocket Constitution from the NSDAR Store (see link above), pencils or pens with Constitution Week printed on them, bookmarks, copies of the Bill of Rights, Preamble, Declaration of Independence, and for middle and high schools, copies of “A More Perfect Union” dvd (movie about the Constitution Convention of 1787) available from the National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS) at the following link:
Chapter Programs
Create a power point presentation which would work for either in-person or “virtual” meetings. Contact a member on the State Speakers’ Staff.
Plan a short but organized “discussion” of the events surrounding the passage of the 19th Amendment (Women’s Suffrage) with pro and con Congressional “speeches”!
Have a brief discussion of the major stumbling block during the Constitutional Convention (Congressional Representation: Madison for the large states, Sherman for the small states and relate it to the debate about the relevance of the Electoral College today.)
Media
Have your chapter publicity chair contact TV stations, newspapers, radio, online services with Constitution Week spots. See NSDAR Constitution Week Toolbox for samples.
Billboards!! Chapters in Arizona, Texas and Virginia have created Constitution Week billboards. The Lamar Company which is nationwide donates advertising space to various nonprofit organizations for PSAs (Public Service Announcements) at the following link:
http://www.lamar.com/about/office/locations
Bells Across America!
At 4:00 p.m. EST (1:00 p.m. PST) on September 17, join DAR daughters across the nation and ring bells to celebrate the signing of the Constitution in 1787!! Perhaps it will be possible to gather in a public park (social distancing observed) and ring the bells! Even if we are in our own homes we can still ring those bells, ladies!!
The above are just a few suggestions and I’m sure you have others, if so, please share them with me! I encourage you to contact me with any questions or comments or if you need help! Call or write to me at Sue MacLaurin, (818) 919-6820, suemack@earthlink.net.
Let’s begin our year with Constitution Week and celebrate all year long!
Sue MacLaurin
Constitution Week Chair