The Hampshire Middle School gym at 560 South State Street was filled on Friday morning with students, teachers and about 60 veterans who came together to honor Veterans Day and pay tribute to the men and women who have served.
The program included readings, speeches, and three patriotic songs performed by the Hampshire Middle School Band.
Hampshire Middle School students Landon LaMarca, Alexi Kagel and Georgi Kerwin each read the winning compositions they wrote for the annual Patriot Pen essay contest. The Hampshire Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8043 and the Hampshire Ladies Auxiliary serve as local co-sponsors.
Donna Proffitt, president of the Hampshire VFW Auxiliary, said that Ethan Olson and Minh Nguyen, who were not present at the middle school program, were the Patriot Pen essay contest winners at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School in Hampshire.
Community Unit School District 300 board member Susie Kopacz has spoken at previous Hampshire Middle School Veterans Day programs. She said that this year was the hardest time for her to stand in front of the microphone due to the protests that have been taking place after the recent presidential election.
“There is dissension in America,” Kopacz said. “It bothers me when I see people disrespecting our country. My father was a farmer who asked to go to war but was told that he was needed to grow food for our country. My father-in-law was a veteran who spent three and a half years in a prisoner of war camp in Japan during World War II. He was 225 pounds when he was captured. When he was freed, he only weighed 98 pounds. He said if he had spent one more month in the prisoner of war camp, he would have died. When he came back to America, he learned a trade and put his four sons through college.”
Kopacz stressed the importance of education and particularly told the female students how fortunate they are to live in the United States.
“Girls, you live in a country where you can go to school and wear whatever you want to wear,” Kopacz said. “That’s what freedom is all about. Freedom is not free. We need to thank our veterans for our freedom. America is the greatest country in the world. The reason we are here today is to learn what it is to be an American.”
United States Army veteran Tom Jones grew up in Elgin and served two years in Vietnam. He read letters written by his cousin, Gary, who served in the United States Marines and was killed in Vietnam at the age of 21.
“Gary was asked to describe what Vietnam was like,” Jones said. “He said the mountains are beautiful and the water is so clear, but only God and the men here know that it is also hot, wet, muddy and lonely. There was death and destruction behind every bush during the war, and fighting men needed to be leery.”
Jones said the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. carries his cousin’s name along with others who gave their lives for our freedom.
“Never take freedom for granted,” Jones said.
Hampshire Middle School Principal Jim Szymczak asked the veterans in the audience to rise as their names were read aloud. The students gave the veterans a standing ovation.
The program in the gym was followed by a brunch for the veterans and their families. There was also the opportunity for veterans to talk to students in the classrooms.
Elgin resident Royal Smith, who served in the United States Air Force from 1960 to 1965, came to Hampshire Middle School with his wife, Jane. They have attended the Veterans Day program four times.
The Smiths have a granddaughter, Lydia Hessenflow of Hampshire, who is a 7th grade student at the school. Lydia’s sister, Helena, is a freshman at Hampshire High School. Jane said that she was a member of the first Burlington Central High School graduating class of 1957.
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Denise Moran is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.