(above, l-r) Bridget Dineen, National Good Citizen Award winner and Mary Leonard, Regent and Good Citizen Chair, Crane’s Ford DAR.
Cranford High School Senior Receives National DAR Good Citizen Award
The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution recently announced their National Good Citizen Award and Scholarship would be presented to Bridget Dineen, a senior at Cranford High School. The high school senior selected must have the qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism. The scholarship portion of the program consists of two parts. The student describes how they have tried to manifest the qualities of a good citizen and secondly writes an essay on a topic chosen by the National Society. This year the topic was titled “Our American Heritage and Our Responsibility for Preserving It”.
Ms. Dineen was sponsored by the Crane’s Ford DAR chapter in Cranford and won the chapter award. She will be receiving the chapter award at Cranford High School Senior Award Program in June. She was subsequently awarded 1st place among 46 New Jersey DAR chapters at a banquet held in Princeton. Attending were her parents along with Mark Cantagallo, principal of Cranford High School and Mary Leonard, Crane’s Ford chapter Regent and chair of the Good Citizen committee. She was next judged at the NSDAR Eastern Division which included 6 states and again won 1stplace. Having won the Division, Bridget was entered into the National level, which consisted of 8 Divisional winners from across the United States and she was chosen as the National winner. She will be invited to attend the NSDAR 128th Continental Congress at Constitution Hall in Washington DC in late June to be recognized for her achievement and accept her award. The New Jersey DAR will host a luncheon at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC which she will also be invited to attend.
The Crane’s Ford chapter has been sponsoring the Good Citizen Award since 1950 and this is the first time the chapter has had a National winner. The National Society has been awarding the Good Citizen Scholarship for 85 years and this is only the second time a New Jersey DAR chapter has had a National winner.
The DAR, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a non-profit, non-political volunteer women’s service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education for children. Currently there are 185,000 members and 3,000 chapters. There are chapters in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other countries. The Crane’s Ford chapter, founded in 1944, is currently celebrating its 75th Anniversary. DAR membership is open to any woman 18 years or older who can prove lineal, bloodline descent from an ancestor who aided in achieving American Independence.
Submitted by Mary Leonard
