Student/Teacher Plans and Thoughts to Honor Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a holiday celebrated throughout America. This national holiday takes place every year on November 11th. Veterans Day was established in 1954, and 68 years later, it is still widely known and honored.

According to the Pew Research Center, about 61% of people are related to a veteran. 

Ava Ramos, a senior, Taylor Kamrath, a senior, Elena Evans, a junior, Reagan Russ, a senior and Anne Straka, a junior are all related to someone who was or is a veteran. 

Ramos previously attended school in Las Vegas and says, “In Las Vegas we did donuts for veterans so we’d host an event where people brought in a veteran for a social gathering and donuts. It was a really great experience with a good turnout when I went with my great uncle.”

The SAVE team and Rho Kappa are working with each other to get people together on November 11th to honor this holiday and the people involved. Both teams are working to get more participation from veterans and grow the breakfast more, according to Nate Flesch, a social studies teacher at Arrowhead. The breakfast that Rho Kappa is hosting, opens time for students and their related veterans to eat and talk together. They will listen to some speakers and the choir and band performing a couple of their songs to further honor the veterans in attendance.

The SAVE team, or Survivor and Veterans Experiences, interviews veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam as well Holocaust survivors in an effort to “save” their stories for future generations, according to the Arrowhead website.

According to the Arrowhead website, Rho Kappa is a national organization for juniors and seniors to recognize excellence in the field of Social Studies. The goal of Rho Kappa is to promote the study of Social Studies but also to promote the activities associated with social studies such as citizenship, appreciation of the past and a sense of community.

“It’s the Rho Kappa group and we’re hosting a breakfast on Veterans Day, which is next Friday, November 11th, in the morning at South Campus from 8-9:30 A.M,” Flesch said. 

“There’s breakfast included, veterans can attend with family members or students, and so we’ll have a couple people talk then we have the choir and band performing a few of their songs,” Flesch said.

On the Arrowhead website, it states that in the past, Rho Kappa has hosted the Veterans Day breakfast, collected Teens for Jeans, where young people are educated on youth homelessness, and participated in field trips. According to Flesch, Rho Kappa has hosted the Veterans Day breakfast for the past seven years.

“SAVE works to interview veterans and hear their stories so they can receive the proper honor and gratitude that they deserve. I also have worked with dozens of veterans at different volunteer events and events that SAVE puts on. I have also run and planned a Veterans Day breakfast at Merton Intermediate through the National Junior Honor Society for my 7th and 8th-grade years,” said Russ, the president of the SAVE team, and vice president of Rho Kappa said.

“Every year at middle school we had a Veterans Day so we’d take them out to breakfast provided by the school and then kind of show them off to our classes and it was super fun to hear their experiences,” Evans said. 

Simple things that people do for veterans often go unnoticed by those around them. 

Kamrath said, “I hung out with my great uncle who was a veteran. I learned some sign language for him because he lost his hearing and I’ve done some social studies projects on things that have to do with it, but not a lot of volunteering or anything like that.”

According to Flesch, Rho Kappa has the Veterans Day breakfast on the school webpage, a Skyalert (a skyword message you get) was sent out, signs have been put up in the community and round the school building, and there were emails and letters sent to those who have come in the past.

To honor Veterans Day, Ramos said, “I will be waving a flag and being with my family including my great uncle. We will be thinking about the veterans and honoring them throughout the day.”

There are many ways you can show your appreciation towards veterans, according to Russ.

Russ said, “Things like holding a door for someone, helping them with assorted tasks, and writing letters to express gratitude. There are countless ways that we as students can make a difference in the lives of veterans and say thank you for the difference that they have made in ours.”