Sean C. Morgan
Hawthorne fifth-graders will honor veterans during a special ceremony on Thursday at the Sweet Home Veterans Memorial.
The memorial is located in front of Hoy’s Hardware, 3041 Main St.
“We’re going to honor veterans,” said student Jessica Maynard, 11.
“We are thanking the veterans who have served and are serving,” added student Qira Barnes, 11.
“Some will get bricks or awards,” Jessica said.
Bricks may be purchased to honor specific veterans, inscribed, and then are placed into the memorial. The children will join four veterans in placing their bricks into the memorial.
Last year, Qira’s grandfather, Eddie Bennett, a Navy veteran, had a brick placed in the memorial.
“We’re going to have a Veterans Day poem,” Qira said.
Students will recite portions of General Douglas MacArthur’s last major address at West Point, Jessica said. They also will sing “America the Beautiful.”
The students will specifically recognize veterans who work for the City of Sweet Home and the Sweet Home School District, she said.
“We’re doing it because we’re recognizing the veterans, and it’s not just about the people that died,” she said. “It’s also about the people serving now. It just seems like you should do that. They’ve done a lot.
“They’ve gone away from home. Some of them have given up their lives.”
They’ve left behind their families to travel to unknown places, Jessica said, “protecting us, defending us, keeping us safe.”
It’s about thanking them for their service, “to help our country and risking their lives,” Qira said.
In class they have learned about what those men and women have protected, why they are to be honored, learning about the Revolutionary War and the foundation of the United States. The students recently finished studying the Constitution of the United States and can recite the Preamble to the Constitution.
Two of three fifth-grade classes are giving the presentation, Willa Martin’s and Carla Alexander’s. This is the second time Hawthorne students have organized a presentation honoring veterans. They did it first for Memorial Day last spring.
The children got involved after members of the Sweet Home Beautification Committee talked to Martin about whether the school had students who might be interested in a project to clean up the memorial.
“It was basically like renovating the whole thing,” Martin said. The students counted it as a community service project, which they list as one of their class goals.
Last year’s fifth graders had it rougher than this year’s, Jessica said. The memorial needed a lot more work.
“They’re pretty proud of themselves,” Martin said. “The important thing is they’ll grow up and be a part of this community. They know they wanted to have more people be able to put bricks in, and they asked if they could help put the bricks in.”
Qira and Jessica said the public is invited to attend the Veterans Day presentation at 1 p.m. on Nov. 6. They request that visitors park at the Highway 20 Church of Christ because parking is limited at the memorial.
“I think you’ll find it very entertaining,” Jessica said.