Skokie Valley Chapter NSDAR

Our National Society was only thirty-five years old when thirteen North Shore women met in the Kenilworth, Illinois, home of Fannie Ames Cope on the last day of 1925, to organize the Skokie Valley Chapter NSDAR. The name was chosen because the founders lived in villages from Wilmette to Waukegan, Illinois, an area once known as the Skokie Valley.

Beginning in the summer of 1933, our Skokie Valley Chapter NSDAR members collected books, playing cards, and games for young men in the Skokie Valley Civilian Conservation Corps Camp “as they worked to build the Skokie Lagoons State Park.”

An active group of Junior members provided a total of 6,190 volunteer hours from 1943-1944. Members helped with draft registration, gave blood, took nurse's aide and first aid courses, worked in war savings stamp booths, and were on U.S.O. committees. They served Sunday evening suppers to servicemen at USO centers and sent cookies and candy to the Skokie Valley Military Police Camp.

Skokie Valley Chapter NSDAR sponsored an Entertainment Committee for Disabled Veterans at North Chicago Hospital (1935-39); gave three summer parties for veterans at North Chicago VA Medical Center (1973, 1975, and 1982); gave money, gifts, books, cancelled stamps, ditty bags, and even 40 pounds of bananas one year; won a first place in Outstanding Support of DAR Project Patriot in Illinois (2011); supported veterans by contributing to Honor Flight Chicago (2010, 2012, and 2014).

The chapter has supported National Society projects, including the Bell Tower at Valley Forge (1953), the Independence Hall Restoration for the Bicentennial, the Statue of Liberty Restoration for her 100th birthday, the Ellis Island Restoration, the restoration of the American flag at the Smithsonian Institution, the building of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. (2004), the President General’s Lay Light Restoration Project at Constitution Hall (2012), and the President General’s Project to repair Constitution Hall and Memorial Continental Hall at NSDAR headquarters in Washington, D.C. (2015).

In 2019, Skokie Valley daughter Sharla Luken made chapter history as the chapter’s first member to be elected Illinois State Regent, 2019‑2021.