Every year, the Eli Whitney Patriotic Committee tries to come up with new and exciting ways to celebrate Veterans Day. The main purpose of the day is to honor those men and women who have served our country in wartime and peacetime, and second purpose is to help educate our students about this special day and these Heroes who walk among us.
This year we decided to add an outdoor component to our celebration. It wouldn't be anything as large as our Memorial Day display, but, for those of you who haven't been around as long as I have, that too started out very small it's first year, and has grown into the giant spectacle that you all know it to be now.
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| Our first Memorial Day 2011 |
So, this year we have included a Whitney Veterans Walk of Honor in order to honor the Veterans in our school community. In October, we asked for families to fill out a paper brick with the name of a family member who served or is serving in the Armed Forces. If they had a photo of that person when they were in uniform, we asked for a photocopy of that so we could put it on the back of the brick for display. Over the weekend, we spray painted red, white, and blue stars on the front lawn and placed one brick in each star. Other bricks surround the Eli Whitney sign. Hopefully, each year we will add more and more bricks to our Whitney Veterans Walk of Honor.
Monday, November 11th
The school was brightly decorated on the inside by the students. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the day to begin.
Today started with our traditional Veterans Day Breakfast. This year the food was provided by Chips! Our honored guests gathered in the faculty room. No awkward silences among this bunch...they are all brothers who served their country well...and Eli Whitney salutes these heroes!
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| Mrs. Wilcoxson is explaining how the morning will work. |
The escorts have arrived to walk our guests through the parade route to their classrooms.
All of the Whitney students lined the halls and clapped and cheered as our Heroes paraded through the hallways to patriotic music.
Then our Veterans went into the classrooms to read to the classes and talk to them about their lives and what their job might have been in the military.
One of the classes had the privilege of seeing some actual medals, including a Bronze Star!
