Barbara Brown, Regent Cheryl Brown, Mayor Jim Auxer, Jane Snyder, Marie Snowden are shown. (submitted)

Jim Auxer, mayor of Shepherdstown, signed a proclamation marking Sept. 17 through 23 as Constitution Week. During this week, the 224th anniversary of the drafting of the U.S. Constitution will be commemorated. On hand for the signing of the proclamation were members of the Pack Horse Ford Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

During Constitution Week, the chapter will place a display, “We Remember 9/11,” in the window of Dickinson and Wait Craft Gallery located on German Street in Shepherdstown. Quotations from Presidents Barack Obama and George Bush will be included as will be photographs, posters and books on the attack on the nation that tested our constitutional form of government.

Seven Jefferson County schools will receive 12 Constitution Week posters and more than 500 copies of the Constitution for use by students. Adults are encouraged to read the Constitution during the week and to reflect on our liberties and the sacrifices made by our forefathers.

The tradition of celebrating the Constitution was started many years ago by the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1955, the Daughters petitioned Congress to set aside Sept. 17 to 23 annually to be dedicated for the observance of Constitution Week.

The resolution was later adopted by the Congress and signed into Public Law #915 on Aug. 2, 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The aims of the celebration are to emphasize citizens’ responsibilities for protecting and defending the Constitution, preserving it for posterity; inform the people that the Constitution is the basis for America’s great heritage and the foundation for our way of life; and encourage the study of the historical events that led to the framing of the Constitution in September 1787.

In 2004, West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd included a provision in a spending bill that mandates all colleges and public K-12 schools receiving federal funding to teach a lesson on the U.S. Constitution.

Jane Snyder is serving as chairman of the chapter’s Constitution Week Committee. Other members of the committee are Vonda Miller, Barbara Brown, Marie Snowden, Carolyn Bryant and Martha Anne McIntosh.

For more information on the DAR, contact Regent Cheryl Brown at 304-876-3817 or Registrar Dorrene Hale at 304-725-6140 or visit www.DAR.org.