Fund-raising is an important part of SAR. It facilitates many of your
Chapter and State projects and initiatives. Promoting your fund-raiser
helps to raise awareness of SAR in your community and beyond, in turn helping you
to better serve others. Always remember to include the five "W's" in
your promotional materials – Who, What, Where, When and Why.
Approach the media (television, newspapers, magazines, newsletters)
with your fund-raising event. Use the RI "News Release Pack" for sample
news releases and suggested media outlets. Be sure to send an overview
of your event at least one week in advance.
Use existing RI public relations materials to create publicity
materials.
Create a 15 or 30 second radio public service announcement
about your event, and send it to local radio stations. Radio stations
often broadcast these announcements as a service to the community.
Consider working with local organizations or businesses to
tap into their clientele as a potential audience. Some businesses offer
special programs where you can receive a percentage of profits from a special coupon
book, or similar promotion.
Enlist a local celebrity who believes in your cause.
They can draw a wider audience, and possibly attract more media to your event.
Add your event to local calendar listings in newspapers, magazines,
newsletters, and on local television. This mus be done in advance.
What Are We?
The SAR is a historical, educational, and patriotic non-profit, US 501 ©) 3, corporation
that seeks to maintain and extend
We do this by perpetuating the stories of patriotism, courage, sacrifice, tragedy,
and triumph of the men who achieved the independence of the American people in the
belief that these stories are universal ones of man's eternal struggle against
tyranny, relevant to all time, and will inspire and strengthen each succeeding
generation as it too is called upon to defend our freedoms on the battlefield and
in our public institutions.
One of the most important stories to the world and to America is that of the shot
fired at Concord Bridge on April 19, 1775. It gave birth to the American
Revolution and is eloquently described by Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose grandfather
was there:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world
That shot was the bold challenge of the New World to the Old World.
It heralded the beginning of the end of the old order, a world where servility to
a hereditary monarch, class, privilege, and family connection were everything and
no man could acquire land or wealth unless he was born to it. The shot
ushered in Novus Ordo Seclorum - a "new order of the ages", an era in which the
common man, freed from the limitations of the old order and restricted only by his
ability, crossed the Atlantic for the opportunities beckoning in America's wilderness,
her cities and towns and became an American citizen.
In the next two hundred years these freedoms would be expanded and untold millions
of men, women, and children from all the continents and corners of the earth would
cross the world's oceans and come to America in search of a better life and to play
their role in the American experiment born on Concord Bridge on April 19, 1775.
The shot fired by embattled farmers has not lost its power, today it echoes and
reverberates in the hearts and minds of men and women in Tiananmen Square, the
dictatorships of Africa, Asia, eastern Europe, and the middle east, and wherever
people yearn to be free.
The Origins of the SAR: In 1876 there were many celebrations to
commemorate the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on
July 4, 1776. As part of this patriotic fervor, a group of men in the
San Francisco, California, area who were descendants of patriots involved in the
American Revolution, formed an organization called the Sons of Revolutionary Sires.
Their objective was to have a fraternal and civic society to salute those men and
women who pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to the battle for independence
from Great Britain. They desired to keep alive their ancestors' story
of patriotism and courage in the belief that it is a universal one of man's struggle
against tyranny – a story which would inspire and sustain succeeding generations
when they would have to defend and extend our freedoms.
Out of the Sires grew the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution,
which was organized on April 30, 1889 – the 100th anniversary of the inauguration
of George Washington as our nation's first President. We have used the
acronym SAR to identify ourselves for 100 years. The SAR was conceived
as a fraternal and civic society composed of lineal descendants of the men who wintered
at Valley Forge, signed the Declaration of Independence, fought in the battles of
the American Revolution, served in the Continental Congress, or otherwise supported
the cause of American Independence. The National Society was chartered
by an Act of the US Congress on June 6, 1906. The charter was signed
by President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a member of the SAR. The charter
authorizes the granting of charters to societies of the various states and territories
and authorizes the state societies to charter chapters within their borders that
established a federal charter for the National Society SAR.
Membership: Today the SAR consists of 26,000 members in over 600
chapters in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK.
Almost 150,000 descendants of men and women Patriots have been admitted since our
founding. SAR member include fourteen presidents of the US, Brigadier,
Lieutenant and five star generals, presidents of several colleges and universities,
ambassadors, and members of the Supreme Court, the US Senate, and the US Congress.
Members include small businessmen, doctors, lawyers, school teachers, CPA's, elected
local, state, and federal officials, and government employees, all of whom have
a deep affection for America its heritage and institutions. SAR members
answered their country's call in every major American conflict beginning with the
battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 up to the present, including
Operation Desert Storm, Bosnia and the current actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
SAR members have received the highest awards American can bestow, including the
Medal of Honor.
Governance: The affairs of the Society are managed by National
Trustees (one each from the several State Societies and International Societies),
15 Regional V.P.'s and 10 National (General) Officers. Each year these
men meet several times at National Headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky to conduct
business. Delegates from all state societies also meet each year for
a multi-day session in a different city for an Annual Congress. Over
60 Committees made up of scores of members also meet regularly to discuss, plan
and act to achieve the Society's objectives.
Last Update: 25 OCT 2003
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