The Culpeper Minutemen presented a SAR Flag Certificate to Bill Scherr of Culpeper for his respectful 24-hour display of Old Glory.  Vice President Charles Jameson and Color Guard Commander Michael Dennis made the presentation.  Mr. Scherr posted a video of the presentation on YouTube.

Patriots Pride Day is a joint effort by the Colonel James Wood II Chapter and Middletown, VA to honor patriots.  It is held at the Veterans Memorial Park in Middletown, VA.  There were two Revolutionary War reenactor skirmishes, a display of Civil War, WWI and WWII equipment and reenactors from those wars.  Present were representatives from the Korean War Veterans Society, AmVets, Honor Flight, Vietnam Veterans of America, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.  Wreathes were presented by The Colonel James Wood II Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames.  The Winchester Honor Guard fired a salute to all patriots.
Submitted by Dale Corey, President, Colonel James Wood II Chapter

     The highlight of the 128th Annual Congress was the announcement of Virginia SAR as the best state society among those with at least 1,000 members and the Fairfax Resolves Chapter as the best chapter with 100-199 members.   This was accompanied by many other awards that clearly allowed Virginia to stand out among the other state societies.

C.A.R. Activity Award
The William M. Melone Award for Approved Supplementals - 2nd Place
The Len Young Smith Award for Most New Members under 40 - 2nd Place
The Robert L. Sonfiled Award for Largest Increase in Membership
The Senator Robert A. Taft Award for Largest Number of New Members - 2nd Place
The Admiral William R. Furlong Memorial Award for Flag Certificates (with special recognition for 100% participation by chapters)
The Officers' Streamer for attendance at National Meetings
The Allene Wilson Groves Award of Implementing SAR Resolutions and Principals
The President Generals Activities Competition

The Liberty Bell Americanism Award - Fairfax Resolves
The President Generals Activities Competition - Fairfax Resolves
The President General's Cup - Fairfax Resolves

Florence Kendall Award for Recruiting New Members - David E. Cook
Several Compatriots received the Liberty Medal for recruiting new members

​On Thursday 12 July, Dave Button, Flag Committee Chairman, Colonel William Grayson Chapter, presented a certificate to Pierce Funeral Home in Manassas.  Accepting the certificate for Pierce Funeral Home was Ernest Myers.  Pierce Funeral Home displays the National Flag 24/7 and lighted.
 
Below are Dave Button (left) and Ernest Myers (right)
 

On Monday, July 9, 2018, the Rappahannock Chapter of the Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) held a well-attended Commemoration and Public Reading of the historic Essex County Colonial Resolutions on the Essex Courthouse steps.  This event was exactly two hundred forty-four years after hundreds of Essex citizens gathered at the same location at the County Courthouse Green on July 9, 1774 and unanimously adopted this series of resolutions.  The Essex Resolutions set forth County residents’ views on how colonists should defend against increasingly objectionable British actions that infringed upon many of their basic rights.  These Resolutions provided guidance on the positions that should be taken by Essex County’s representatives who several weeks later attended Virginia’s First Revolutionary Convention in August of 1774.  That Convention adopted strong limitations on trade with Britain and elected the colony’s delegates to the First Continental Congress that met in October 1774.  The Essex Resolutions of July 9, 1774 are an extremely well drafted statement of the County residents’ cutting-edge political views and show how they were at the forefront of colonial thought on citizen’s rights and the need to defend them.  
 
The Rappahannock Chapter’s event began with Chapter President Wright Andrews giving the audience the historical background regarding these Resolutions, followed by seven Essex County residents who are direct descendants of American Revolutionary War Patriots taking turns reading the various Resolutions aloud to the audience.  Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Carl Strock, Immediate Past Chapter President, then described key actions, including Essex County’s sending over a thousand bushels of local corn to help feed residents of Boston, where the British had closed the port, and how the follow-on Virginia First Revolutionary Convention  adopted provisions that the Essex Resolutions had advocated and elected the colony’s delegates to the First Continental Congress.
 
The text of the Essex Resolutions of July 9, 1774  is in the below PDF file.
​
​Submitted by Wright Andrews

​In late June three carloads of Williamsburg Chapter members traveled to Quantico to visit the National Museum of the Marine Corps.  They were guided on a three-hour tour through the Museum by retired Marines serving as docents.  Another Chapter trip to the Museum is planned for later in the summer or fall to just wander through the displays.
 
The huge museum opened to visitors 12 years ago, funded by donations from corporate America, active/former/or retired Marines and friends of the Corps.  There is no admission fee.  It is operated by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation which also promotes a number of award programs recognizing education, leadership, and history.  In its first decade it welcomed 5 million visitors, including more than 350,000 school children.
 
The museum tells the story of the Marines from their beginning at Philadelphia in 1775 to the present day through displays of artifacts that include jet and helicopter aircraft suspended above historical era representations of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish War, the World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.  A final construction project is devoted to additional World War I exhibits and recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait.  It is scheduled for completion in 2019.
 
Submitted by:  Harley Stewart

 As part of a  tradition that spans over 50 years, the George Washington Chapter organized an Independence Day Commemoration at George Washington's Mount Vernon.  The parade up the bowling green in front of the mansion was led by the talented  Frederick Town Fife and Drum Corps and the VASSAR Color Guard.  Chapter Vice President David Thomas served as Master of Ceremonies, Chapter President Ernest Coggins delivered an address, and VASSAR Orations Contest winner, Miss Gabby Luchetti from Bishop O'Connell High School,  delivered her speech.  The event concluded with a wreath laying at General Washington's tomb by 1st VASSAR Vice President Pete Davenport and past George Washington Chapter President Paul Walden.  Members of the SAR, DAR, and public were then invited to lay carnations at the entrance to his tomb.  Over 40 compatriots from the George Washington, George Mason, Fairfax Resolves, Culpeper Minutemen, Norfolk, Richmond, Dan River, and William Grayson VASSAR Chapters participated in the event.  

After that event, GWSAR Vice President Dave Thomas participated in the Naturalization Ceremony for 101 new citizens in leading the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.  

The Colonel George Waller Chapter at the Independence Day celebration at Patrick Henry's Red Hill Plantation in Brookneal, VA presented its 2018 student Bronze Good Citizenship/American History Medal & Certificate to Kyle Griffith, a recent graduate of Chatham High School in Pittsylvania County.  Kyle participates in the Chapter's Living History Group.  Over 2,000 visitors attended the July 4th celebration at Red Hill.
 
Photo Below L to R:  Compatriot W.C. Fowlkes, Compatriot Jeff Briggs, Kyle Griffith, and Compatriot Gene Reamey
 
Submitted by Bob Vogler, President CGW Chapter