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Sunday, May 16, 2004
Wars hits home for middle schoolers
By LYNN BULMAHN | News-Journal Staff Writer
EDGEWATER — New Smyrna Beach Middle School pupils are learning a lesson about the true cost of war.
Youngsters in Denzel Ellison’s social studies classes have put together a memorial display listing American servicemen and servicewomen killed overseas in the war on terrorism.
The display, contained on three large boards, lists each person’s name, age, hometown, military rank and other biographical information, which was researched on the Internet. Most also have the soldier’s photo.
Each display was adorned with white crosses and purple hearts, one for each person, which pupils cut out of construction paper.
Ellison said the memorial display was a six-week project for his seventh-graders.
“When we started, we needed 500 crosses and when we finished, we needed more than 800,” he said.
Called “Faces of War, Faces of Valor,” the memorial was dedicated Thursday morning at a special – and very somber – assembly at the school auditorium. Youngsters performed music in the soldiers’ honor and speakers paid tribute to them.
“This memorial is for the soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Tomica Gibbs, a seventh-grader who was one of the program’s announcers.
“Thanks to these soldiers, you enjoy your freedom today,” added seventh-grader Samantha Morrisey, also an announcer.
Principal Gary Marks told the pupils the underlying lesson in their project was that “freedom is not free.”
“There is a very dear and heavy price we must pay to be free and to help others to be free,” he said.
County Council member Jack Hayman, a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, was overcome by emotion as he addressed the youngsters.
“What you have done today, to recognize the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have made the supreme sacrifice for their country, I would be remiss if I didn’t share the importance of it with you,” he said.
John Kelly, representing the Disabled American Veterans organization, thanked the pupils for remembering each fallen hero.
“This is a memorial of heroes – the true heroes of our country, heroes that wanted to keep us free,” he told them. “Every time you look at this memorial, think of every one of these heroes and say thank you.”
Skip “Old Beachcomber” Katez, a father and school volunteer who helped build the display, told of the first soldier he researched. Luke Fritz, 20, died three days after driving a gasoline truck over a land mine.
“He was part of a convoy going to a place I couldn’t pronounce,” Katez said. An Army Reservist, Fritz was burned more than 95 percent of his body.
Katez pointed out another soldier, Army Spc. Jeremiah Holmes, whose photo shows him kissing his young infant.
“Sometimes people tend to forget about these people,” he said, “but they’re more important than the politicians – and more important than anyone you know.”
Noting that the military dead came from all walks of life, Katez invited the children to see what they have in common with the fallen heroes: “Five years from now, this could be you.”