The Chattanooga Area Regents’ Council of Chattanooga, consisting of the five regents of the five local chapters and a past regent, met on Monday to discuss the plans for the coming year and the projects completed over the summer.
An undertaking of this summer was working with the UTC Veterans’ Entrepreneurship Program to provide refreshments and meals for the veterans. The Moccasin Bend and Judge David Campbell chapters provided soup, rolls, salad, cupcakes and cookies, along with drinks for one meal and the Nancy Ward and Chief John Ross chapters provided casseroles, along with salad and sides. They also served brownies and cookies for dessert. Chickamauga Chapter provided an array of snacks for the Hospitality Room. This is the fourth year that the chapters have provided lunches for the VEP program said DAR coordinator for the program Susan Henderson. Serving the veteran population, either in a setting such as UTC or by providing them with needed items for restarting their lives through the various service programs in the Chattanooga area, is a special focus and privilege of the DAR. Everyone enjoyed the lunch, even the service dog, who took a few minutes to chow down on some homemade food.
The students attending are military members, veterans and spouses. These individuals have been though a selection process that places them into an accelerated learning program using online education, a classroom style “boot camp” and a comprehensive mentorship. Chattanooga business professionals continue to work with the individuals to help with the multitude of questions that arise as they go into business. According to one official with the program the success rate is about 32 percent of the students who have successfully completed the program have opened small businesses. The eclectic range of ideas for start-up businesses vary from a winery to a school locker lock replacement enterprise, to personal service businesses such as life coaches and a floating bed and breakfast.
Each student comes with an idea to develop into a business. According to the most recent census data from 2010, there were 2.45 million businesses with majority ownership by veterans, generating sales/receipts of $1.220 trillion with 5.793 million employees, and an annual payroll of $210 billion. Veteran-owned firms represented 9.0 percent of all U.S. firms. Helping veterans succeed is opening doors for new small business growth and economic development throughout the U.S., said officials.
Upcoming projects include supporting Honor Flights whose current focus is providing free transportation for World War II veterans to visit Washington, D.C.; a trip to Gunter, Ala. to visit the Kate Duncan Smith DAR School; participation in patriotic parades; and supporting historic preservation by assisting in maintaining the Brainerd Mission Cemetery. The focus of the DAR is to promote patriotism, preserve American history, and support better education for the nation's children. The National Society was founded in 1890 and members are descended from patriots who won American independence during the Revolutionary War.
The Chattanooga Chapters are Chickamauga, Regent Joye Duke; Chief John Ross, Regent Raz Demetru; Judge David Campbell, Regent Susan Lindsey; Moccasin Bend, Regent Barbara Fickley, and Nancy Ward Chapter, Regent Natalie Blackwell. Teresa Rimer, previous regent of the Chief John Ross Chapter, serves as chairman of the 2016-2017 Regents’ Council.
To learn more about the work of today's DAR, visit www.DAR.org and for information on these chapters, visit www.tndar.org.