Veterans Day program at Harrison Schmitt Elementary 110918

: Category: Front Page News Front Page News; Published: 15 November 2018 15 November 2018

Photos and article by Mary Alice Murphy

After the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Veterans Day program at Harrison Schmitt Elementary School, held a moment of silence to honor fallen veterans.

Principal Leslie Ormand announced the various classes and what they performed in honor of Veterans Day.

A group of second graders and fifth graders sang and signed "God Bless America," which Ormand said they start every day with at the school as their Morning Song.

She explained that the program was being done twice, because it is difficult to get all 427 students and an audience in the cafeteria at the same time. "We hope our gym will be ready next year, so we can all meet at one time together."

A team of first-graders held up large posters of each letter of the word VETERAN. Each read what that letter stood for.

A group of students also did a marching chant.

Another group of students held the graphs and charts they had made and explained "veterans by the numbers."

A group of third-graders read letters they wrote thanking veterans. Some thanked their relatives who have served in the Armed Forces.

The guest speaker was Guy Ramirez, who graduated from Silver High School, New Mexico State University and Western New Mexico University. He was a firefighter for the Forest Service and has taught elementary, junior high and now high school at Aldo Leopold Charter School.

He was deployed for Desert Storm in 1990 and again for Iraqi Freedom in 2003. "I spent 20 years in the Army Reserves."

For the speech, he said he thought of things that students have asked him. Such as: "What is a veteran?" He explained it was someone who has served in the U.S. Army, Navy, or Air Force.

Another question was "Does a veteran have to have fought in a war?" The simple answer is: "No."

He talked about the main words that mean a lot to a veteran. The first was Sacrifice. Ramirez said students have to remember that a veteran has to sacrifice quite a bit. "We have to miss our favorite places, and holidays and birthdays with our family. You sacrifice things for your family. If you want something badly enough, you have to sacrifice."

Courage was the second word. "There are scary things that are difficult to do. But we have to stand up for others and be a leader. We have to be brave and we don't give up."

Integrity, he said is: "Doing the right thing even when no one is watching. Veterans get assignments they may not want to do, but they get it done and keep on trying. If you have integrity, your teachers can trust you to make good choices."

"Students ask me: 'What do you do in the Army?' We are trained to fight. But most soldiers have jobs, such as a plumber, a member of the Army band, a reporter, military police, computer tech for the Army. Most soldiers are helping to support the combat soldiers."

Freedom is important to every veteran. "When we are in the military, we see countries that don't have freedom like we do. We can live anywhere we want, work where we want, and we can choose our own religion."

He them asked questions of the students. The ones who answered correctly received Iraqi money.

Ormand emphasized that is many countries, students have to pay to go to school. "Here you get to come to school for free."

The sixth graders then gave a presentation.

Teachers, whose classes were involved in the program, included: Music teacher Rhonda Billings; Norma Bender and Aaron Rogers, whose second and fifth grade classes did the singing and signing of God Bless America. First-grade teachers were Greta Kasten, Denise Ruelaz, and Diana Aguirre; second-grade teachers were Bender, Debbie Door and Jennifer Durkin; third-grade teachers were Christina Trewern, Jacqueline Rodriguez and Amber Gnader; and the sixth-grade teacher was Jessica Hoffman.

The teachers at the school who are veterans are Hoffman, Door, Aaron Swatzell and Chad Martin.

The main hallways were also decorated with posters created by the students.

{{{_source.title}}} {{#_source.showPrice}} {{{_source.displayPrice}}} {{/_source.showPrice}}

Veterans Day program at Harrison Schmitt Elementary 110918

Content on the Beat

Submitting to the Beat

Editor's Notes