Secondary Market Manager Roberta Woodard and the Daughters of the American Revolution need your help.

DAR is a nonprofit volunteer women’s service organization that promotes historic preservation, education, and patriotism. And here’s where North Shore Bank comes in.

Roberta, at left, receiving recognition at DAR’s 2014 Continental Congress for her entry into the group’s American Heritage contest.

At DAR’s 125th Continental Congress next month in Washington, D.C., the group hopes to set the Guinness World Record for “most letters to military personnel collected in one month.” To do this, DAR members are asking family, friends, and the public to write letters of support to our service people in the armed forces.

Here’s how it works:

• Each person can write only one letter. Either stationery or a card can be used.
• All letters must be handwritten.
• Your letter must contain three components: (1) a greeting (“Dear Sailor”), (2) an original message of support or appreciation, and (3) a closing (“Love,” “Thank you,” “Sincerely”) with a signature.
• You should put your letter in an unsealed envelope bearing a 49-cent (or “Forever”) stamp, and handwrite your return address.
• Letters should be addressed, in handwriting, to: Brandon L. Watling, USS Ashland (LSD 48), FPO AP 96660-1736. Letters sent to this address will be distributed to Navy personnel aboard the USS Ashland. Alternately, you may write and address your letter to an active-duty individual you know personally.
• If you are at Corporate, cards and paper will be available in the Café if you wish to write a letter on your lunch break. Be sure to put a stamp on the envelope, but leave the envelope unsealed, and place it in the box on the table. Please note: You can list the bank as your return address, but it must be handwritten.
• Letters must be submitted to Roberta by Friday, June 3. Corporate employees can leave their letters in the box in the Café. Branch employees can send their unsealed letters to Roberta Woodard’s attention at Corporate. If you are sending your letter from a branch, send it to Corporate by May 31.

Roberta will then hand over the letters to a member of her DAR chapter, who will carry them by hand to the Continental Congress on June 15.

History in her blood
“My father and I always shared a love of our country’s history,” says Roberta. “When I was very young, he told me that our ancestors had been in America for a very long time and that someday I should look into joining the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Mayflower Society.”

Watching genealogy-inspired shows like Who Do You Think You Are? and Finding Your Roots finally prompted Roberta to start exploring her lineage, starting with tools like the Ancestry.com website.

“Six months later, I was officially a member of DAR and have since proven my lineage to six additional Revolutionary War patriots, including two new ones who were not previously in the DAR database,” she says. “I have three other supplemental applications pending at National at this time, including another new patriot.”

She also became an official member of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants about a year ago, after tracing her heritage back to ship passenger John Howland on her mother’s side. And in February, she proved her connection on her father’s side to Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford, on an application for her 92-year-old uncle.

Roberta (front row, far left) with her DAR chapter last week.

Searching the past, serving the present
Roberta is a member of DAR’s Annis Avery Hill chapter in Wauwatosa. She is ending her term as the chapter’s registrar, during which she helped prospective members with the genealogical research they needed to do to join the organization. She is a trained DAR genealogist and presents a genealogy workshop for the public every January. Roberta is also the chapter’s Volunteer Information Services chair and created the chapter’s website, and co-chair of the chapter’s American Heritage Committee. Last month, she was asked to become the Volunteer Information Services chair for DAR at a statewide level.

She notes that although DAR is a lineage society with ties to America’s past, its members are also deeply committed to helping people in the present. DAR members logged more than 4.5 million hours of community service in 2014 (the 2015 numbers haven’t been released yet), and they spend more than 200,000 hours annually volunteering to help veterans in VA hospitals and other facilities.

Finally, Roberta emphasizes that the current letter-writing campaign “is not for me, nor is it for the Daughters of the American Revolution. It is for today’s servicemen and servicewomen — to tell them how much, on a one-on-one basis, we appreciate the sacrifices they have made to dedicate their lives to our country. We thought this was a good way to bring attention and coordinate the effort to recognize and personally thank today’s servicemen and servicewomen.”

If you have questions about the letter-writing campaign, you can contact Roberta at rwoodard@northshorebank.com or 262-797-3593. Now get writing!