The Daughters of the American Revolution honored the National Ringing of the Bell outside the Sampson County Courthouse Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. Several churches around Clinton joined in to ring bells simultaneously.
The National Ringing of the Bell occurs each year on Sept. 17 at 4 p.m. EDT around the country to commemorate the bells that rang in Philadelphia following the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. The ringing of the bells marks the first day of Constitution Week.
The Constitution Week celebration in Clinton is sponsored by the Richard Clinton Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Any woman with family ties to either a patriot or someone who gave aid or assistance during the American Revolutionary War is eligible to join the DAR.
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was instrumental in establishing the annual observance of Constitution Week nationwide. In 1955, DAR petitioned Congress to designate Sept. 17-23 each year as Constitution Week. Congress adopted the resolution, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed it into law Aug. 2, 1956.
“Constitution Week is the commemoration of America’s most important document, the Constitution of the United States of America,” Clinton Police Chief Adrian Mathews said as he presented a proclamation from Mayor Lew Starling during the bell-ringing ceremony Thursday.
Clinton High School JROTC Color Guard cadets Karina Garcia Roldan, Zoe Cruz, Samantha Fernandes and Leandro Colman performed the posting and retiring of the colors for the event. Matilda Parker performed the national anthem.
After the national anthem, Angela Tousey, regent for the Richard Clinton Chapter NSDAR, spoke about patriots of America’s past, including men and women.
She highlighted Deborah Sampson, a woman during the Revolutionary War who became a soldier by disguising herself as a man to fight in the Continental Army.
“In order to protect her identity,” Tousey recounted, “during one skirmish where (Sampson) had received a head wound and a wound to her thigh, the doctor dressed her head wound; she went off and pulled the musket ball out of her leg and cleaned it up.”
Tousey said Sampson was found out six months before her two years in the Army were up.
“She had developed a fever, they brought her to the doctor…but he didn’t turn her in. For six months more, he kept that secret.”
Sampson, Tousey added, was the first woman to receive a full military pension for participation in the Revolutionary Army.
When the ceremony ended, Tousey explained how the Richard Clinton Chapter has distributed various Constitution-related information and challenges to both Sampson County and Clinton City schools.
“For younger students,” she said, “there are pages they can color of the founding fathers, and they can look at the Pledge of Allegiance and learn that.”
“We also are having patriot essays for the high schools,” mentioned Penny Lockerman, vice regent for the Richard Clinton Chapter.
There is currently a competition among both high school and middle school students to write patriot essays.
“Then we have a DAR Good Citizens essay which is for a national scholarship,” Lockerman added.
The Good Citizens essays, Lockerman clarified, are due by Oct. 31.
The DAR Good Citizens Award and Scholarship Contest was created in 1934 to recognize high school seniors who demonstrate qualities of good citizenship. Scholarships are awarded at the chapter, state, division and national levels.
Both school districts, along with private schools and home-school students, are included in the writing challenges. The vice regent noted that all of the information about the Constitution Week challenges has been sent to the schools, along with the Sampson-Clinton Public Library and Sampson County YMCA.