Louanne Woznicki takes her time dusting the desk in the corner of the room. Clad in gloves and careful not to use any chemicals, she polishes its surface with a cloth issued to her by the Charlotte Museum of History, ensuring no speck of dirt — or occasional ladybug — remains.

The walnut desk’s drawers, arched cubbies, and secret compartments make it more artifact than furniture. Dating back to 1765, it sits in the study of the Rock House at the museum. The Rock House, the oldest surviving house in Mecklenburg County, completed in 1774, was home to Hezekiah Alexander, a Charlotte statesman who helped lead Mecklenburg County to independence. His desk has special meaning to Woznicki, the current regent for the Mecklenburg Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution: This is one of the desks where the ideas of freedom were born that would change the course of our country’s future and eventually birth a nation.

For generations, the women of the Mecklenburg Chapter, including (from left) Shelly Kiker, Louanne Woznicki, and Laura Morris Giust, have helped preserve the Rock House, the oldest home in Mecklenburg County. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

Woznicki and her fellow chapter sisters, including Elizabeth Nisbet Miller — a direct descendant of Alexander (seven generations back) — don’t take their connection to history for granted. “In most museums, you can’t touch anything,” Woznicki says. “When we clean the Rock House, it’s nice to enjoy a sense of trust. You are in the spaces where historic things happened, and that’s a very cool feeling.”

That sense of preserving the past for future generations motivates these women to put on their old clothes each spring to clean the Rock House. Some polish windows with newspapers, while others straighten bed sheets. Shelly Kiker — the immediate past regent, current historian, and DAR schools chapter chair — focuses her efforts on the kitchen house, where she’s evicted more than one bird’s nest. “It’s just so easy to imagine in that space how those people lived and what their daily life was like,” says Kiker, who led the charge to restore the kitchen house in 2023.

Kiker led the kitchen restoration at the Rock House during her term as regent. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

By throwing a 125th anniversary gala, the chapter raised $60,000 to replace a rotted structural beam, rechink the logs, and stabilize the hearth and chimney to make it functional. The restoration was crucial in making cooking demonstrations possible again for the 10,000 annual visitors to the Rock House, according to Nolan Dahm, exhibits manager and lead historian. “The DAR, they’re just always here,” he says. “They’re always showing up.”

Prior to the kitchen renovation, the Mecklenburg Chapter was also integral in preserving the Rock House during the 1950s. With a total of 13,462 community service hours in 2025 alone, the 267 women who make up the Mecklenburg Chapter are still at it. Whether they’re restoring historic structures, making lap quilts for veterans, marking graves of American Revolutionary War patriots, or supporting educational efforts, these women are not ladies who lunch; they are ladies who get things done.

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Membership in the NSDAR is awarded to women who can prove they are direct descendants of someone who helped achieve independence during the Revolutionary War.

Kiker talks of her patriot, Thomas Hoover, as if she knew him personally. An ancestor on her paternal grandmother’s side, he provided sundries for the militia, and is buried in a private cemetery in Lincolnton. Kiker and her father visit about once a year and clear brush and vines while they’re there. Because some of her ancestors lived in the Steele Creek area of Charlotte, Kiker was more inclined to join a Charlotte chapter of the NSDAR.

Casey Funderburk (left) and her mother, Elizabeth Nisbet Miller, descend from Hezekiah Alexander. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

Organized in 1898, the Mecklenburg Chapter is the oldest chapter in North Carolina and the second largest in the state behind Wilmington’s Stamp Defiance Chapter. Kiker liked the fact that she could hide among the Mecklenburg Chapter’s 36 committees until she figured out how she wanted to be involved. Five years after joining, she became regent and was fully dedicated to the organization’s three pillars — historic preservation, education, and patriotism.

Kiker was so drawn to the NSDAR’s mission of service that she encouraged her daughter, Carson Garvin, and her mother, Diane Hannon, to join. “You know, I have these resources of money and time, and these are the things, through DAR, that I can focus on,” Woznicki says. That’s the thing that separates NSDAR from other service organizations. “No matter what your interest, there’s a niche where you can get involved,” she explains. “It’s taking pride in our ancestors who were all connected and wanted things to be better. We’re like that today.”

Giust has crocheted at least 175 poppies. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

While she was regent, Kiker’s love of children — she’s a grandmother to six— inspired her to strengthen an existing relationship with La Escuelita San Marcos, a bilingual parent-collaborative preschool in Huntersville. Upon meeting with the school’s administration, she discovered that they wanted to create a STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics — room in the basement of Hopewell Presbyterian Church, where the school meets and whose cemetery is where many of the chapter’s patriots are buried. Shortly after, the chapter raised enough money to not only redo the floors in the STEAM room but also the entire school.

Since then, the chapter has collected supplies for the students and paid for their caps and gowns at graduation. “At this point they [the staff at La Escuelita] feel comfortable saying, ‘This is what we need,’ ” Kiker says, adding that this partnership also fosters patriotism in the students, many of whom are first-generation Americans.

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It’s Saturday morning, and Woznicki has her old clothes on again. This time, she’s cleaning gravesites at Redding Springs Cemetery. With a soft bristle brush in one hand and a bottle of D/2 Biological Solution in the other, she brightens tombstones so veterans can receive the recognition they deserve. The chapter adopted the cemetery a few years ago and maintains the property.

“The people before us helped create what we have now. This is a good way of honoring those who came before us,” says Woznicki, whose patriot is buried in New York. “I like to think there are people caring for other people’s patriots as well.”

When veterans at Novant Health Matthews Medical Center receive a homemade lap quilt from the chapter, a poppy comes with it. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

Caring for veterans is one of Woznicki’s favorite things about the NSDAR, so she never misses the Queen City Honor Flight, a free flight from Charlotte to Washington, D.C., that takes veterans to visit the district’s memorials. Laura Morris Giust is usually right there with her, waiting for the veterans to arrive, American flag in hand. As cowbells and bagpipes ring in the air, two women carry a banner that reads “Welcome Home Honor Flight Veterans, Thank You,” followed by a parade of veterans accompanied by their caregivers, many of whom are their grandchildren. While the crowd erupts in cheers, Giust takes her appreciation a step further. “I jump into the hallway and shake people’s hands,” says the first vice regent. “I want to look in their eyes and not just make noise but make a connection.”

In addition to welcoming them home, members of the Mecklenburg Chapter handwrite thank-you notes for every Honor Flight veteran, up to 140. It’s a moving experience that often brings veterans to tears. “I want them to feel the love because many of them were never welcomed home,” says Giust, who also crochets poppies for veterans. “It all serves the mission of service to America.”

That seems to be the sentiment among all the daughters. They want to honor their ancestors and the country they helped create in whatever way they can, even if it’s simply by dusting a desk sitting in a corner.