God Bless America

What an honor it was to attend the Veterans' Day Assembly at DCC Middle School this morning. It was supposed to be yesterday, but yesterday turned out to be a snow day. I cannot tell you how great it is to live in a community so unabashedly patriotic and Godly. Every day we see lots of uniformed parents dropping off kids, picking up kids, attending this and that; but to see it all at once is stunning. After all the vets entered and were seated, an ROTC group opened with the presentation of the colors. Fina's group, the Thundertones, sang (in 4-part) the national anthem and a medley of the Armed Forces songs. As each service's song was sung, the vets in that service stood. A child from each grade level presented their winning submission to an arts contest of honoring vets. The 6th grade girl sang an original song, the 7th grader shared an original poem, and the 8th grader shared her very cool art piece depicting a service family. It took a while for the principal to name off all the service families in the school, and members of each family stood as their names were called. There were quite a few kids standing by the end. A men's chorus of mostly vets sang a handful of songs, barbershop style. The program went for an hour in a gymnasium full of junior high kids - and you could have heard a pin drop except when they were cheering and waving flags. (Sorry for the crappy cell phone vid/pics, I didn't think to bring the real camera.)