Students at Zach White Elementary honor Veterans
Zach White Elementary school honored veterans with their traditional Veterans Day celebration Friday.
It has become tradition, but this year’s celebration was different. The school incorporated a helicopter flyby after the National Anthem, surprising its students.
Many veterans attended the ceremony. “For me as a Vietnam War veteran is part of my welcome home, as you know, Vietnam War veterans did not get one. This is terrific, This is the second one that I’ve been to. I was at one at Fort Hood 50 years ago. This is just up there with it,” Thomas Briseno said.
For Elviria Richard, a teacher at the school, this became an opportunity to teach her students about service, something she knows first hand. Richard was deployed in Iraq for 14 months and the ceremony was a way for her own students to say thank you.
“I practice it with my students everyday. I make sure that whenever we do the pledge, and the Texas flag, that they know that they take it seriously and we talk about how veterans have given their life so that we can be here and we can honor them, and we honor them everyday,” Richard said.
The ceremony was capped off by everyone in attendance getting the official flower for military memorials, the Buddy Poppy. The flower, symbolic with remembrance, is a constant symbol of freedom. For the students at Zach White Elementary, the Buddy Poppy serves as a reminder that freedom does not come without sacrifice.
Sacrifice is something that military members and their families know all too well. For most, missing birthdays or other significant moments is part of the job description.
“To be free, I had to make sacrifices: missing kids birthdays, missing Thanksgiving, Christmas for the holiday, but you know what, I know that my kids or my parents or somebody’s parents are free, they get to live free, walk around free, freedom of speech, and everything,” said Lt. Major Brian Charles Smith Sr.
