LEYDEN — Pearl Rhodes Elementary School students learned why they’re having a three-day weekend by meeting eight Leyden veterans during a Thursday assembly.
In honor of Veterans Day, Bob Clancy, principal of both Pearl Rhodes and Bernardston Elementary School, arranged for local Vietnam and Afghanistan veterans to come to the school and answer questions about their service.
The veterans involved were Bob Hardesty, William Glabach, Lance Fritz, Jeffrey Neipp, Aimee Rackham, Bob Snow, Matt Muka and Charlie Loven.
Clancy, a Vietnam veteran himself, said he regularly schedules an assembly about Veterans Day at Bernardston Elementary, and wanted to bring the same to Pearl Rhodes to give students “a sense of understanding of what a veteran is and who they are in their own community.”
After saying the Pledge of Allegiance, students watched a video about the history of Veterans Day. First- and second-graders sang the eight veterans a song they rehearsed, and presented them with cards. Following questions that touched on what the veterans ate during the war and whether they were injured, students shook the veterans’ hands.
Lisa Armstrong, who teaches fifth and sixth grades, said she hopes her students gain an understanding that serving the country is a sacrifice, and said the assembly tied in well with her students’ recent readings. For sixth-grader Marshall Deveney, the assembly reminded him of his own family.
“I do have a lot of veterans in my family,” he said.
The assembly was also a useful experience for the veterans, allowing them to connect with each other.
“I didn’t know there were that many of them in town,” said Loven, who served in the Air Force from 1966 to 1970.
Before the assembly ended, Clancy gave students a simple piece of advice.
“It is very likely that in your family, or in your neighborhood, you know veterans,” Clancy said. “So what you should do when you see them is just say ‘Thank you.’”