COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The eighth-graders from Grizzell
Middle School were likely to see World War II veterans on their trip to
Washington, D.C., their teachers told them.
This was in October,
during the government shutdown. The veterans had been in the news
because they were having difficulty getting into the memorial to WWII.
History teacher Shawn Kaeser and some of the other adults took the
opportunity to make a proposal.
"You’re only going to have the
chance to talk to them for a few more years," he remembers telling the
students. "You might want to go up and introduce yourselves and ask them
questions."
The suggestion, and everything that followed, has
come in some ways to define the school year for those 13- and 14- year
-olds. It also has led to a grade-wide project to help the old troops
see the National World War II Memorial.
Grizzell eighth-graders
have raised more than $13,500 to help sponsor a trip for about 30 World
War II veterans to Washington. The money will go to Honor Flight
Columbus, the local branch of the national organization that takes
veterans and their caregivers to the memorial at no charge to them.
"I’d like to get $15,000," Kaeser said in a meeting with some of his students last week.
"I want to get more than $15,000!" replied Jackson Khandelwal, 13, one of the project’s student
leaders.
That
kind of enthusiasm has made the fundraising project possible, Kaeser
said. It goes back to the October trip, when the kids did what the
teachers had suggested.
Savannah "Savvyâ" Heinlin, 13, said she
and some friends knew to go up to older guys wearing World War II hats.
"?We went over and shook their hands and thanked them for their
service," she said.
The son of one WWII veteran — himself an Iraq
veteran from Kansas — was so moved that he wrote a letter to the Dublin
school district.
"I’m not sure if every student from Grizzell
shook our hands, but it sure seemed like it," the son wrote, after
recounting a similar experience with Sells Middle School students who
also were on the trip.
"Dublin, Ohio, is doing something right,"
he wrote, "and we all came away with the impression that this country
might just have a future after all."
The experience also was important for the students.
"You
read about World War II in class all the time," said Adam McCarty, 14.
"But to actually see that person who gave you your freedom …"
Grizzell
Principal Dustin Miller had earlier asked each grade to complete a
service project. Some of the veterans the students on the Washington
trip had met were there because of Honor Flight. So raising money to
sponsor a flight became obvious to Kaeser and his fellow teachers.
More
than 30 students submitted essay applications to be the leaders of the
project; Jackson, Savvy, Adam and about 10 others were chosen.
Every
eighth-grade student wrote to an area business to explain the
fundraising and to ask for donations. They received $1,000 checks from
Wendy’s, Elmer’s Products and Greif, an industrial-packaging
manufacturer. Plenty of other businesses wrote checks, too.
The
students sold Chipotle burritos at school to raise money. When Chipotle
found out what was going on, it donated half the burritos. A fundraiser,
which lets students wear pajamas to class and eat a couple of doughnuts
for a $5 donation, could bring in $1,000.
Other schools also have
raised money for Honor Flight, said Jim Downing, the president of Honor
Flight Columbus. Westerville schools and Olentangy Liberty High School
have been big supporters.
The students in all those places have
something in common, Downing said.
"I think they really appreciate the
sacrifices that these men and women veterans have made."
Grizzell
plans to hold an assembly on May 2 to present the money for use on a
May 17 trip, Kaeser said. The school hopes that any veterans who can
make it to the assembly will attend.
The assembly, like the project itself, is meant to be a celebration of military service.
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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com
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