Schools Across Des Moines Commemorate Veterans Day
Studebaker students look at a U.S. flag featuring their pictures, which was also signed by Veterans who attended the school’s celebration.
After a round of Veterans Day events broke out across the district late last week, the patriotic fever continued this morning with an observance at Studebaker Elementary School where 31 vets were fed and feted.
“We want your autographs,” they were told, so they lined up after enjoying a pancake breakfast to sign the stars on the custom-made flag that hung on the wall in the school gym while the one at the top of the pole outside flapped at attention in a stiff, military-crisp breeze. The signed stars attested to service spanning the last six decades.
Studebaker’s celebration was organized by 1st grade teachers Rita Olsthoorn, whose son Chad is a Marine currently serving in Afghanistan, and Sarah Countryman. The theme throughout November at Studebaker is citizenship so they enlisted the community outreach branch of the student council for a poignant readers’ theater salute that reminded us all to REMEMBER, especially those whose service cost them the ultimate price.
Last Friday Park Avenue Elementary continued one of the district’s longest-running Vets Day traditions with their usual musical salute, one which is the culmination of pen pal relationships between students and vets through which the latter are extended invitations to come to the school’s annual party in their honor.
Also on Friday, at North High School, Major Sean Quinlan again led the school’s Junior ROTC corps in a more military-styled ceremony in the auditorium after a welcoming breakfast was served in the cafeteria before school.
And at Goodrell, last week’s spaghetti supper fundraiser for Wounded Warriors was followed up this morning with a solemn Meet Me at the Pole event before school on the front lawn where Chaplain David Doty from the 132nd Fighter Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard presided. Later there was an assembly that honored the sacrifice of military service from the perspective of soldiers’ families. Finally, at 11:00 a bell chimed 11 times in remembrance of the fallen.
Everybody’s school colors are red, white and blue today and, even though recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance is part of the daily routines throughout the district, it sounds extra loud and clear on Veterans Day.
At Studebaker one of the many songs that were sung was an original composition called Freedom Isn’t Free, courtesy of Olsthoorn, her son and her students. No, it’s not, but it sure can be noisy, and it was as the gym slowly filled, grade-by-grade, with students who were proud and anxious to honor the vets from their school community who were their special guests today. Once assembled, they quieted until it was their turn to sing. Formal salutes that started up front quickly rippled through the ranks like “the wave” does at sporting events as youngsters seated on the floor hopped to their feet en masse in repeated shows of appreciation.
Freedom is not free, it has a cost
Dreams are broken and lives are lost
Today we wave our flags and give a cheer
To the soldiers we love so dear
Thanks to generations of brave American soldiers this current generation of children adjourned from the assembly to the following, unspoken order: As you were – at ease.
