By: Sam Bailey-Loomis, Editor
Today, Branford High School held its annual Veteran’s Day celebration, honoring more than 30 local veterans. The event was organized by the school’s Horizons Program, and has been an anticipated event recurring annually for 14 years since 1999. Veterans from World War II, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and the Korean War were all present. After second period, students from all grades gathered together in the student commons to honor each veteran, and to pay their respects.
Through out the day, students were offered an opportunity to sponsor a lunch with a veteran and to discuss with the veterans their personal war experiences. Classes were also given an option to take a trip down to the auditorium to hear each individual veteran deliver a personal testimony. Veterans laughed, joked, and even cried while telling the stories of their past. Additionally, throughout the hallways, family members of BHS students, teachers at BHS, and former students themselves, deceased or living, were all honored in a slide show prepared by Mr. Gruendel (who is a veteran himself of operation Desert Storm). See the slide show below:
Students’ feedback about the assembly and presentations were friendly, respectful, and enlightening. Rachel Ingraham, a senior at BHS, whose sister and father served in the military, commented on the ceremony saying that it was “a great way to remember those who served our country” and that she was “so happy that BHS pulled something so wonderful together.”
