A Life Changing Message
As a member of the Fort Nashborough Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), our luncheon in The University Club at Vanderbilt University was particularly special Thursday, September 12th. It was special not just because I sang " Be Like Abigail " for the first time since I was awarded the 2013 National Society Daughters of the American Revolution American Heritage Music Composition Award during the 122nd Continental Congress in Washington, D.C. And it was special not just because every Daughter at the luncheon is special, has a special patriot and a special story to tell. It was particularly special because of the speaker, Josie McCamish. I don't know when I've been as moved by a speaker as I was this afternoon...and I've heard a lot of speakers.
Mrs. McCamish is a 1962 graduate of the Kate Duncan Smith School (KDS) one of the schools DAR sponsors and is located in Grant, Alabama. Emerging from a poor family in a rural Appalachian community Mrs. McCamish is only one example of how God provides for His people through His people. Having recently retired from a forty - year career as a school teacher, among her many recollections, Mrs. McCamish's shared an early memory of how God provided for her when her family could not afford even 15 cents for a "hot lunch" so she could eat with the children who, at lunchtime, would eat downstairs; Mrs. McCamish sat upstairs and ate a cold lunch...by herself. Sharing her stories as a small child at KDS were heart-breaking, heart-warming and brought tears to our eyes. What a poster-child she is for what is possible as a consequence of the "good" human beings can do when they focus and care...and give out of a heart filled with the love of "God, Home and Country" - the official motto of The Daughters of the American Revolution
Kate Duncan Smith School is located on Gunter Mountain in northeast Alabama. The school serves grades K-12 and provides opportunities for the children of a large, rural area in the Appalachian foothills to develop a strong love of American ideals as they obtain a distinctive academic background. Emphasis is upon patriotic education throughout the curriculum. Although the school plant and enrollment have increased greatly in size and number since 1924, the same spirit of dedication to achievement, patriotic and moral values, and service to community and country exists on the campus today as it did in the early years of this unique educational experiment of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
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