Earth Day Festival

Earth Day Festival

Attendance: 7 members (5 peewees), 2 youth guests, 7 seniors, and 1 senior guest

Contests: Conservation, Membership, Registrar

Members came together for our annual Earth Day festival celebration at Forest Park. We welcomed a new prospective family at our meeting and discussed their genealogy. During the meeting we announced that the society received a 2nd Place and an Honorable Mention on national contests. After the meeting, members and their families were able to explore the Earth Day festival and learn ways to recycle and care for their earth here in St. Louis.

Conservation Contest: Members learned about ways to recycle and care for their earth through the booths at the Earth Day Festival.

Membership: Increase membership in your local society by encouraging active participation in society activities. A Punchbowl invitation was shared on Facebook.

Registrar: Plan fun and interactive events that will engage members at the society level.

April Meeting: Earth Day Festival

Awards were given to members who weren't
able to attend State Conference

Plenty of people attended this fun-loaded meeting at Forest Park. 5 Members, 5 seniors, 2 prospective members, 1 visiting C.A.R. member, 1 visiting DAR member, and 1 other adult guest attended.

We gave out awards to members who were absent from State Conference. We also welcomed a new prospective member and signed his papers. Then we went out into the Earth Day Festival and learned about our Conservation Program. We learned about the how to protect our earth and its environment. Another thing we learned about was weathering & erosion, and how littering can affect our waterways.

-Marcus, age 14

Members Modeling Weathering and Erosion

November: Veteran's Day Program

Members at Veteran's Day Memorial Service

Members attended a fully packed day of learning about Veteran's day at Jefferson Barracks Park and Cemetery. There were 6 members, 1 prospective member, and 7 seniors in attendance.

Member explaining the Zimmerman Telegram

First, members attended the "Over Here: World War I from Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis and Missouri" exhibit at the Old Ordnance Room at Jefferson Barracks Park. There, they learned about the Zimmerman Telegram and how it started World War I. The older members tried to explain it to us on video (see above and below).

Members explaining the Zimmerman Telegram

Second, member attended a wreath laying ceremony sponsored by the St. Louis-Jefferson Chapter DAR. Members helped pass out goodie bags to veterans.

Members gave goodie bags to veterans.

Third, members placed a wreath at the World War I memorial, to honor those who fought in the war they learned about earlier in the day.

Members placed wreaths at the WWI memorial.

October Field Trip: Cahokia Mounds

All the members in 1!

5 members, 1 prospective member, and 6 seniors visited Cahokia Mounds to learn about the Organizing Secretary, Assistant Organizing Secretary, and American Indians programs.

Organizing Secretary Program: Members looked for information about the Lewis and Clark expedition, and learned ways that the American Indians helped the expedition to be successful.

Assistant Organizing Secretary Program: Members learned about archaeology and how it changes our understanding of history as we learn more about how people lived in the past.

American Indians Program: Members learned about how the Indians lived at Cahokia when it was first built, and during our countries early years. They learned about how the Indians helped our ancestors and the Lewis and Clark expedition. They got a lot of pictures!

September Meeting: Missouri Botanical Garden

BEES!

Buzz 

6 Members, 1 Prospective, and 6 Seniors took a field trip to Missouri Botanical Garden and had lots of fun learning about plants from Missouri. We also signed 2 documents that helped Alexander McNair society grow by 2 new members!
Attendees learned about the conservation program along with many different plants from Missouri. They learned about a lot of things like bees, plants, and programs yet still had time to hug trees and have fun!

-Marcus, Age 13

Tree 

They also hugged some trees.

August Field Trip: State Workshop

6 members, 1 prospective, and 8 seniors traveled to Columbia, Missouri for the Missouri State Society Children of the American Revolution (M.S.S.C.A.R.) State Workshop. Several of our members are state officers or chairmen, so they wrote skits to help share their projects with the rest of the members. They also were able to participate in crafts during the senior meeting.

Officers and chairmen wrote their own skits and invited others to join them.

Before the meeting, members and seniors participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at a veteran's memorial in Columbia. One of our senior leaders is the Senior State President and led the memorial.

Senior State President

An Alexander McNair Senior played the bagpipes.

Members also learned about this year's state project, Have a Heart: Support Operation Gratitude. You can learn more about the program at their website:

July Meeting: Packet Planning Meeting

Members made family trees for the Registrar's Program.

6 members, 1 prospective, and 8 seniors were in attendance at our Annual Packet Planning Meeting. Members and seniors reviewed the Browsing History National Program to come up with activities they would like to do during the year. They coordinated calendars to come up with the best meeting times and then scheduled the activities. Everyone was excited for the activities that we planned!

While there, members were able to complete two programs! They created family trees for the Registrar's Program. In this simplified tree, they could see how they linked to their revolutionary ancestor.

Completed family tree

They also learned about the Public Relations Program. For this program, members were to learn about how technology has changed throughout the years. They were able to look at their parent's cell phones and then they saw a rotary phone. They had to figure out how to make a phone call using a rotary phone!

Finally, the kids were able to go swimming at one of the local pools while a few of the seniors finished finalizing the calendar.

No meeting is complete without the C.A.R. song!

July Field Trip: Old Courthouse

Members and prospective member at Old Courthouse

We went to the old courthouse in St Louis which is the first federal building west of the Mississippi River. We learned about Lewis and Clark, Native Americans and how they lived, and about the Dred Scott Case.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

We learned that Lewis and Clark bought everything in Illinois and followed the Missouri River. They picked up a Native American guide by the name of Sacagawea in Sioux nations. We learned that the Native Americans hunted Bison (Buffalo) for food, clothing, and sport.

Members participated in a mock trial.

Lastly, we learned about the Dred Scott Case through a mock trial. We got to play the parts of the different people in the trial. Dred Scott was an African American slave who wanted freedom. He went to court because he went into a couple of states where slavery was illegal. He thought he should have been freed because he was in those states. At trial, Dred Scott was declared free, but it was brought further and further up to the point where it reached the Supreme Court. They declared that Dred Scott was a still slave. Finally, he was freed by his first owner, who who bought him for a dollar and then freed him.

There was 5 members, 5 seniors, and 1 perspective member present.

Written by: Marcus, Age 13