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Andrews – The annual Veterans Day breakfast and patriotic assembly celebration at Andrews elementary and high schools was held Nov. 10.
With a threat of snow flurries that morning and anxious children and parents checking the weather condition, crowds still faced the bitter cold to honor those who served.
The breakfast, provided by Morning Fog Coffee & Eats, gave students and their special visitors a chance to enjoy some time together, according to assistant principal Dianne Kinne. She also passed along Principal Kim Davis’ thanks for the support of the community, staff and students, as she was unable to attend this year due to traveling out of town.
The gymnasium hosted the attendees and honorees with the decorations upon tables, while students were decked out in their red, white and blue best and waving American flags. Students lined the hallways to chant “U-S-A!” as the veterans walked across the street for the high school assembly.
The entirety of Andrews schools’ student bodies assembled in the Andrews High gymnasium for the requisite musical and choral tributes. New Principal Dorin Oxender stepped into his welcoming emcee role, detailing his three-week tenure learning his way around the school, thanking the staff and community for the warm welcome.
Oxender shared his own connection to those who serve by acknowledging a point of pride in honoring his son-in-law as an active duty captain in the Air Force. He commended attendees who previously served for setting examples for us all.
Eighth-grader Ben Cross led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. Samuel Kolodski’s Andrews High Band led the audience’s singing of the National Anthem.
School board member and U.S. Navy veteran James Ellis once again gave a stunning and emotional recognition of Vietnam War veterans – along with the stark statistics of service and loss from every conflict the American soldier has participated in, from the Revolutionary War to present day.
Ellis also imparted his history as an Andrews native and related the words of Scott Moore, his commanding officer, which always stuck with him: “We do this for our hometowns. So our kids won’t see war.”
Ellis then went on to say, “We don’t do this for politics. I leaned on this town during my tours in Afghanistan. The memories made here. Their support. Their prayers. This is why we do it.” He then read the names of local residents who served during Vietnam and had those present stand for recognition.
As a segue to Ellis’ speech and the reading of local veterans who both served and were lost in Vietnam and to commemorate The Missing Man Table, Andrews Middle School art and social studies teacher Ann Williams read Margot Thies Raven’s 2005 book America’s White Table, which chronicles a young girl’s coming to terms with her mother’s traditions that honor family members who were both held prisoner and lost in service of her nation.
Williams’ eighth-grade classes wrote gratitude letters and poems to honor the veterans, which were on display as the honorees entered the gym.
Fourth-graders sat rapt in the audience in front of Williams as they listened to the explanation of the symbols represented by the table and its components. They also sat in front of the honored veterans in the middle of the gym, many who were also visibility touched at the story of the symbol.
Andrews Middle Principal Joslyn Parker Booth played “Taps” to put a fine point on those lost, those missing; their sacrifices always remembered.
New to this year’s program were the choral performances led by Andrews Elementary music teacher Cassandra Schreiber. Schreiber had third-graders sing “America the Beautiful” along with some visual choreography, while fourth-graders tackled “This Land is Your Land,” which also had a bit of accompaniment from the audience. Fifth-grade students ended the program with a rousing rendition of “God Bless the USA.”
The high school band played the various branch hymns, as veterans from those branches stood for recognition and applause.
Oxender left the crowd with his observation that he is “starting to understand what makes this place so special” after witnessing the program. With the exception of 2020 due to COVID-19 shutdowns and remote learning, the program was originally begun in 2014 to provide recognition and gratitude to area veterans and was initially conceived as a joint project between the Parent and Teacher Association and schools.