History comes alive on Veteran's Day
By Rebecca Ray
Photographs by Kathy De La Torre
For Fisher Middle School seventh-graders, wars that occurred before their lifetimes have become part of the present. Fisher faculty commemorated Veterans' Day for the first time ever by having all seventh-graders interview and research veterans and attend a ceremony on Nov. 9, at which seventh-grader Kendall Bartlett, accompanied by the band, sung the National Anthem, and a Humvee and a collage containing photos of the veterans the students interviewed were displayed.
Approximately 400 students, their parents and the veterans they researched, or 750 people in all, attended the ceremony, according to Principal Paul Alioto.
"Kids get the day off and don't know why," Alioto said. "[The ceremony] really keeps the spirit of the holiday alive and gets kids to appreciate the sacrifices made by men and women in uniform."
World War II Navy veteran Joe Celaya, who was a featured guest speaker at the ceremony, related the time he was on board the ship U.S.S. Indianapolis, when a Japanese submarine torpedoed it on July 30, 1945, and caused it to sink. While approximately 300 men went down with the ship, Celaya and the remaining 900 men floated in shark-infested waters for four days with no lifeboats and little, if any, food or water. Only about one-quarter of the men survived.
"I don't like to hear about sharks now," Celaya said.
Fisher Middle School teacher Keith McCormick recalls his days of service as a helicopter gunship pilot in the Vietnam War. He said the ceremony at the school helped him feel he'd finally come home.
During the interviews, some veterans told stories of being shot and having near-death experiences, according to seventh-grade social studies teacher Veronique Winiarski. Some of them even said they were turned down at the gate of heaven.
The other guest speaker, Keith McCormick, a Vietnam War veteran and teacher at Fisher, said that talking about his memories was invaluable, especially since no one talked about the Vietnam War.
"This day allowed all veterans to say and share and be honored," said McCormick. "It's one of the most helpful things to ever occur in my life. [Vietnam] was a war we [Vietnam War veterans] never felt like we came home from. A day like this makes this former soldier feel like I've finally come home."
Former Army paratrooper and Military Order of the Purple Heart of the U.S.A. Commander Frank DeWitt presented the seventh-grade class with an Americanism award for showing outstanding patriotism and honoring the veterans.
Winiarski and two other seventh-grade history teachers, Barry Siebenthall, who served in the army, and Donna Kennedy, organized the ceremony to honor veterans and make history come to life.
"We were hoping to show them that history is all around them," Kennedy said. "It's not just stories about guys in history books."
When students who interviewed parents and grandparents heard their parents' and grandparents' stories, they became proud of them and grew closer to them, according to Winiarski.
"It turned out so nicely I'd love to make it an annual event," Kennedy said. "All the hard work was worth it."
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