Bobbie Jean Cook Burnett is regent of the Russellville Chapter of the NSDAR.

Wednesday, Sept. 17, begins the national celebration of Constitution Week. The weeklong commemoration of America's most important document was declared by President Eisenhower in 1955. The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and thus, the Russellville Chapter NSDAR, encourages Americans to pay tribute to the Constitution during this time.

This is the two hundred and twenty-seventh anniversary of our Founding Fathers signing the Constitution on that September day in 1787 in Philadelphia after four months of deliberation. Today, the Constitution stands as an icon of freedom for people around the world.

Did you know that …

* the Constitution is 227 years old? It was signed on Sept. 17, 1787, and became the law of the land when the ninth state (New Hampshire) ratified it on June 21, 1788?

* James Madison is known as the "Father of the Constitution" and George Mason is credited with the "Bill of Rights?"

* the Constitution was written in four months and 55 delegates attended the Constitutional Convention at one time or another? Not all those present on Sept. 17, 1787 (39) signed it.

* Ben Franklin at 81 was the oldest delegate at the convention?

* the only state not represented at the convention was Rhode Island?

* of the 55 delegates, 39 were or had been congressmen, 29 were lawyers, 8 had signed the Declaration of Independence, more than half were college graduates, 3 were doctors, and almost half had fought in the American Revolution?