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Today, there are 73 chapters. Thirty-four Daughters have served as State Regents and membership is almost 4,000 strong. South Carolina Daughters participate in naturalization ceremonies, flag presentations and flag programs, literacy programs, school events with Junior American Citizen clubs and contests, give ROTC, DAR Good Citizens, and Good Citizenship Medals. They plant trees, shrubs, and flowers for the environment. They recycle. They conduct American History Contests and give American History Teacher Awards. They give scholarships. They place historical markers honoring people, buildings, and sites which remind us of our ancestors that fought for the freedoms we now enjoy. The project closest to the heart of South Carolina Daughters, who rallied to the need of the mountain children of South Carolina in 1919, is Tamassee DAR School. Support, both financial and physical, is given lovingly by the South Carolina Daughters. The South Carolina Daughters maintain the oldest building on campus, the Grace Ward Calhoun Cottage. The Old Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon (Charleston), owned by the South Carolina State Society, NSDAR, ranks with Independence Hall (Philadelphia) and Faneuil Hall (Boston) as one of the three most important buildings of Colonial America. In 1912, the building had fallen into a state of disrepair, and the United States Secretary of the Treasury ordered the Exchange Building to be sold or to be razed. At this time Rebecca Motte Chapter became active in an effort to secure the building. In 1917, the Federal Government deeded the building to the South Carolina State Society, NSDAR, in trust for the Rebecca Motte Chapter. In 1974, the Old Exchange was declared a National Landmark by the National Park Service. The South Carolina State Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, are custodians of the Battleship South Carolina silver service. The battleship, The U.S.S. South Carolina, was christened on July 12, 1908. On board was a sixty-six piece silver service with each piece being a work of art, in that it depicted the fruit, flowers and foliage native to our State. The General Assembly allocated $5,000 to purchase this Silver in 1907. In 1921, under the Harding Disarmament Conference, the ship was scrapped and the South Carolina State DAR was made custodians of the silver because they had given the flags which were used on the ship. South Carolina Period Room in the NSDAR Headquarters in Washington DC depicts an early nineteenth century bed chamber with its summer textile covering. The pine fireplace surround was taken from the Carwile-McClentocky House in Edgefield, South Carolina, and the child’s crib comes from Greenville County. South Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution, NSDAR, continues to serve God, Home, and Country. In all our work we promote our three objectives, historical, educational, and patriotic. All this we do in hope, faith, and love.
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