EASLEY — The DAR recently channeled its patriotism and support of military service members toward an ambitious goal: set a Guinness World Records for the most letters to military personnel collected in one month.
Achieving this required the National Society to collect and mail at least 10,000 letters to active-duty service members.
DAR members from across the country — including members of the Fort Prince George Chapter in Easley — rallied in support of the effort, collecting letters from local schoolchildren, coworkers, friends and families.
As dictated by the guidelines, all letters had to be handwritten, addressed to an active duty service member, placed inside a stamped, unsealed envelope and delivered in person to one of the designated stations set up at DAR Headquarters.
Easley chapter members Anne Kilpatrick and Harriet Nash took the chapter’s letters to Washington, D.C., and hand-delivered them to a collection station.
An official Guinness World Records adjudicator arrived to conduct the verification process and the total was revealed at the National Defense Night ceremony held June 18 at he 125th Continental Congress held at the DAR’s Washington, D.C., headquarters,
The adjudicator announced the results using a number tally on a big screen: The DAR had collected 100,904 letters, more than 10 times the minimum threshold needed to set the record for most letters to military personnel collected in one month.
All 100,904 letters were on the way to active duty military personnel serving both at home and abroad by the end of June.
