Sacrifice of service: mistletoe school honors veterans in classroom lesson – record
Photo by Andreas Fuhrmann
Veterans Ed Niederberger (left) and Ron Icely, both of Redding, return a desk to Amanda Deedon’s Mistletoe Elementary School eighth-grade classroom. Deedon had removed all the chairs and desks the day before to teach the students how the veterans’ service has provided them with things they take for granted.
Clair Hearn, like the rest of her fellow eighth-graders, was standing in a circle around the center of her history classroom, devoid of any desks, tables and chairs.
All the desks, chairs and tables had disappeared Wednesday.
“Be absolutely silent,” their teacher, Amanda Deedon, said. “Yesterday, you were walking in here with the expectation of the tables and chairs being here. We talked about how you earn a desk. Some said fundraising, some said the school should provide them and some said we should just have them.”
As she finished speaking, several pairs of veterans, gripping the edges of the tables, silently carried each one in, set it down, and lined up by the door.
“Do you have to earn a desk? No. These guys did it for you,” Deedon said.
It was a personal lesson to her students Thursday after Mistletoe Elementary School’s annual Mistletoe School Salutes America, a program featuring singing, skits, slide shows and a restored Huey helicopter, all to honor veterans from the area.
“(It was) better than any parade down Fifth Street,” Vietnam veteran Jack Brooks said.
He had not attended a veterans celebration at Mistletoe before because he hadn’t been ready, he said. His daughter, a teacherat Mistletoe, had invited him.
Brooks stood as the school choir sang “God Bless the USA.” He said he song reminded him of the word “united” in United States.
Hearn, 13, tearfully thanked the veterans for their service in Deedon’s classroom.
“I take almost everything for granted. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to learn,” she said.
Another student, Brittany Kester, 13, cried as she said she realized how much she owes to the veterans and how much they gave up in serving their country.
“You’re worth it,” replied Terry Newport, a Vietnam veteran. “I’d do it all over again for you.”
For the past four years, Newport has helped Deedon, who organized Mistletoe’s Salute to Veterans, with her demonstration.
He likes the lesson: taking the desks, something students assume will always be there, because it makes them think about how many things wouldn’t exist without the veterans’ service to the United States.
“It’s to see the light come on in their head,” he said.
The first time he saw Mistletoe’s veterans celebration, the emotional toll lasted for days.
“It’s up a lump in your throat that you couldn’t swallow. There are people who care,” he said. “We weren’t welcomed home as most vets were welcomed home. We were a lost generation.”
Deedon said her father has suffered from his Vietnam tour since he came back.
“We never went to fireworks. He couldn’t handle crowds.He couldn’t handle loud noises,” she said.
The student president also presented the Northern California Veterans Historical Association with a $250 donation raised from the sale of homemade bracelets by the students.
Younger students enjoyed the restored Huey helicopter and Korean War-era Jeep on display.
Parker Shamblin, 7, said he liked walking inside the helicopter and one veteran’s description of how he used smoke grenades. Shamblin said he wished he’d gotten to watch it take off.
“I like loud things.They hurt my ears,” he said.
Veterans Day Events
Observances: 10:55 a.m., Northern California Veterans Day Cemetery, Igo: Cognac toast: 11 a.m., Redding Elks Lodge.
Parks: Free admission today through Sunday at Lassen Volcanic National Park, Whiskeytown Lake Recreational Area and Lava Beds National Monument.
Fundraisers: Drive-thru fundraiser from 6 to 11 a.m. today at Mt. Shasta Mall and across from KRCR-TV on Auditorium Drive to collect donations to provide free RABA bus passes to veterans; Shasta Estates retirement community is hosting a cookie and pie fundraiser Saturday and Sunday to benefit Outward Bound for Veterans. Fundraiser at Estates Jewelers, 1328 Placer St., from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and at Tops Market, 3685 Eureka Way, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
