John Scarffe, Evergreen. Bailey Hobson-Kroll of Gilpin County High School received a scholarship from the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) during a luncheon on Saturday, February 28, 2020, at the Wild Game,1204 Bergen Parkway, Evergreen, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Bailey was one of the three finalists in the 2020 DAR Mountain Rendezvous Chapter Good Citizens scholarship essay contest the DAR holds every year, according to Scholarship Chair Mary McGhee.   

The DAR scholarship encourages and rewards the qualities of patriotism, leadership, dependability and service. The scholarship is open to any high school senior, male or female who exhibits these qualities to an outstanding degree, according to McGhee. The announced local winner will be automatically advanced to the state level.

Bailey Hobson-Kroll’s guidance counselor is Kim Cobb, a counselor with Gilpin Schools. Bailey is captain of her volleyball team, a member of the National Honor Society and Interact club president.

She runs a food and coat drive every year, collecting more than 10 coats, all while maintaining a 4.0 grade-point average. After school, Bailey works in a community day care for one to three-year old children. Her future plans include working in secondary education as a history teacher.

DAR is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States’ efforts towards independence, McGhee said. A non-profit group, DAR promotes historic preservation, education and patriotism. 

The organization’s membership is limited to direct lineal descendants of soldiers or others of the Revolutionary period who aided the cause of independence. Unlike many service organizations today, DAR was created by an Act of Congress in 1896.

The DAR has more than 185,000 members. Members include First Ladies Caroline Harrison (wife of President Benjamin Harrison), Bess Truman (wife of President Harry Truman), Eleanor Roosevelt (wife of Franklin Roosevelt), Rosalynn Carter, Laura Bush, as well as Elizabeth Dole, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Grace Hopper, Margaret Rhea Seddon and Janet Reno.

(Originally published in the February 13, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)