Student Council representatives Johnnie Reed (12), Lexi Smith (12) and Madilynn Romme (11) all volunteered to give speeches at the Veterans Day assembly on Friday, Nov. 10. The students spent that week preparing and ended up doing a great job in putting on another great Veterans Day assembly.
Volunteering to speak in front of not only the entire school but also many veterans and other members of the community could be viewed as a scary decision. For Smith, the vice-president of the junior class, the speech had more meaning: “Veterans Day means a lot to me and is a very important day because I’ve had family and friends serve, so I wanted to do it out of respect to them,” Smith said.
Smith described the speech as “an honor,” and said she was “grateful” for the opportunity. She and the other two student speakers helped make the assembly a great experience honoring veterans.
Reed spoke at the event for the second year in a row, this year as the student body president. “It felt good to represent the school in that way,” Reed said.
Giving thanks and honoring veterans is what the assembly was for, but it was deeper than just that for Reed. “You have to show your thankfulness, but you also have to live your thankfulness, and showing that we care enough to put on an assembly for them is important,” Reed said.
The veterans who came to the assembly were grateful for the event and especially grateful for student speakers. Seeing high schoolers up there giving thanks to them seemed to mean more to the veterans. Roger D. Brockway, father of business teacher Dean Brockway (staff), served in the Air Force and attended the assembly. R. Brockway was impressed with the student speeches. “I was so impressed — it was really, really good. They went through the whole detail, congratulated all the former military branches, and presented themselves very well,” R. Brockway said.
Part of being in Student Council is stepping up and being a leader, and these three students did that and more by representing the school in a positive way and showing thanks to all the veterans within the Windsor community. The Veterans Day assembly at Windsor High School will continue to be a top-tier event for thanking veterans and increasing community involvement for students.
