TERRE HAUTE — Honey Creek Middle School gave a big salute Tuesday to America’s veterans and emergency responders.
Students, teachers, administrators and parents filled the school’s main gymnasium in a one-hour program to honor people whose jobs put them in harm’s way to keep others safe.
“Every day should be like Veterans Day,” said Saagarika Coleman, the eighth-grade winner of the school’s Veteran’s Day essay contest. Her essay, which she read to the assembly, discussed America’s early years, the American War for Independence and the role of the armed forces in defending U.S. soil.
America’s veterans are “valiant defenders of the common good,” she said.
The Honey Creek Veterans Day program also included music performed by the school’s girls choir, the Honey Creek Band and an eighth-grade dance performance. Members of the Indiana Air National Guard’s 181st Intelligence Wing, based in Terre Haute, presented the colors.
“Heroes Day” is perhaps a better name for Veterans Day, suggested 1st Sgt. Michael Taylor of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, Kilo Company, who spoke briefly during Tuesday morning’s program. While serving in the Marines overseas, Taylor said he is grateful for the security provided back home for his family by police, fire and other emergency responders. “I deeply appreciate it,” he said.
Tuesday morning’s program also included a tribute to U.S. Army Sgt. Dale Griffin, who attended Honey Creek Middle School for three years in the early 1990s. Griffin was killed Oct. 27 while serving with operation Enduring Freedom with U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
“Two weeks ago, I lost a former student,” said Honey Creek science teacher Nancy Padan. To Padan’s knowledge, Griffin was her first former student to be killed in action while serving in the military, she said.
Despite having more than 1,000 students in the 15 years since Griffin was her student, Padan said she could clearly remember him.
“He was memorable,” Padan said as images of Griffin were projected onto the wall of the school gymnasium behind her. One image showed servicemen carrying Griffin’s casket past a saluting President Barack Obama at Dover Air Force Base last month. Obama later said seeing the caskets of Griffin and 17 other returning soldiers killed in Afghanistan would have an effect on his decisions about the future of the war, Padan noted. “Even in his death, Dale was making a difference,” she said.
The tribute to Griffin, which began with a reading from the Bible, ended with a brief moment of silence.
At another point in the program, the audience paid tribute to about 100 emergency responders and members of the military who were special guests at the assembly. The audience gave them a lengthy standing ovation.
“I’m personally very grateful for our veterans,” said Dale Brown, an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Honey Creek and the organizer of the annual event, now in its 12th year. Ever since 9/11, Brown has included fire fighters, police and other emergency responders in the program, he said.
At the end of the program, the 181st Intelligence Wing presented Brown with an honorary membership in the Air National Guard unit’s Honor Guard. School principal Patrick Sheehan also thanked Brown for his work each year putting together the Veterans Day assembly.
“I think its great to expose our kids to this,” Brown said after the program. “Like adults, they take so much for granted.”
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
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Honey Creek pauses to recognize ‘valiant defenders’
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