HONORING OUR VETERANS

A message from Karen Keel:

I’m so excited to open this invitation to celebrate our Veteran connections at Ingham ISD.

For years, I have celebrated Veterans’ Day with my class at Evergreen Program and now North Star School.  We generally start with reading some different books to learn about the meaning of Veteran and the reasons that we celebrate Veterans’ Day.

One of these books is America’s White Table by Margot Theis Raven.  This book shares information in narrative form about the Missing Man Table, why American Military bases set this table, the symbols present on the table, and helps people notice other similar tables set in the community.  These tables honor service members that have fallen or are missing in action/prisoners of war.  My family has also used this table to honor members not present due to deployment or being stationed in a different place from the family.  It shows that we have saved a place and will remember to celebrate them even when they are not with us.  

Last year, I was given permission to create an amazing opportunity for my class to practice positive civic participation and honor the Veteran connections we have.  We planted branch flags for all six branches of the US Military.  Then we were given the honor of celebrating 236 Veterans by placing small, individually labeled American flags with their names and Ingham ISD connections next to the appropriate branch flag.

We were permitted to help 32 staff members, and 28 students honor their personal Veteran connections in the green space between the large parking lot and the Wilson Talent Center/North Star School/SAIL program building.

I know that we have many more Veteran connections.  We would like to celebrate as many as we are able.  Please use the attached Google Form to register your Veteran connections.  We will use this information to label the individual flags.  I have 135 flags from last year’s display that, with permission, we will happily label for this year and include again. Some of these flags were meant to be returned to the staff/student connection. My apologies for the flags not reaching the intended persons. Rest assured that we have assistance this year to be sure that the flags reach you when the display is taken down.    

The large branch flags are scheduled to be placed on 10/14/24.  We plan to start placing the smaller flags on 10/21/24.  We will continue to take submissions through 11/14/24 and plan to dismantle the display on 11/18/24.  Information to collect or receive your flags will be shared as soon as our system specifications are set.

We look forward to learning all about your Veteran connections and the immense impact that Veterans have created in the Ingham ISD community. 

I would like to close this call to action by sharing a symbol from America’s White Table.  A red rose is placed on the table as a symbol for the hope that all service members will come home safely.  I would like to extend that hope in general to our community because this is a specific time of year that I remember to share some hope.  

Each of our Veteran connections matter, each of you matter, and it's time to share some hope while we honor these amazing individuals.  

Filled with hope,   
Karen Keel