Veterans Day: Honoring Those Who Have Served You
November 16, 2021
Every year Veterans Day gets celebrated at FHS to show how appreciative our community is of the heroic acts displayed by the service members. Student Council and JROTC ran the show, planning all the details of the special event to represent the 4 branches of the military; Army, Navy, Marine Corp, and Air Force. In previous years JROTC would host a breakfast for the veterans to socialize together. Right after they were invited to an assembly held with a ceremony lasting hours, but that has recently changed for the better.
Last year Student Council came up with the idea of having the veterans cruise through the student body in vehicles driven by themselves or a loving family member. The veterans seemed to love this and all the interactions they got to have with the smiling students waving them on with an array of “thank yous”. With all the positive feedback, StuCo decided to make it an annual event. This year a few more components were added which made it more special for the students and the veterans.
A parade was created this year contributing large army vehicles and police cars. Groups of JROTC members marched with each branch’s flag to lead the cars through the spectators. Even the hardworking student council members walked along with everyone carrying a large poster they had made in honor of the veterans. Before all of this began, each veteran was visited by both JROTC and student council members to strike a conversation and to be given many gifts.
Student council worked hard preparing the memorable gifts. The veterans received handmade cards, rubber bracelets that were red white and blue and said Proud Veteran, gift cards for a free pizza from Domino’s, and a military patch. Some of the members of the clubs would get into in-depth conversation with the veterans. Many of the service members were interested in each student’s life. Mary Anderson (9) said, “Every one of the veterans I talked to was very respectful, and I was asked by many of them what type of service I was interested into going into after high school.” The veterans surely left FHS with smiles on their faces.
