The morning routine of saying the Pledge of Allegiance at Starpoint School had students showing extra American pride during their Veteran’s Day celebration Friday.

The first level class hosted a veterans community service project, with the entire school, where students wrote letters to veterans and active military, brought in family member’s military memorabilia for a gallery walkthrough, and collected candy for Operation Gratitude.

“This was entirely the children’s effort,” Miss. May said, the first level teacher. “They brought in over 123 pounds of candy and wrote over 250 letters for Operation Gratitude.”

Operation Gratitude is a service that sends more than 300,000 care packages a year to active military members and their families all over the world. The children at Starpoint were asked to not buy any of the candy donated, rather sacrifice their own candy in honor of the active military who sacrifice so much for us.

“Service and sacrifice is the main lesson I’ve been trying to teach these children,” Miss. May said. “They only had a few days to bring in candy and write letters to active military and each day they kept asking if they could bring in more and more.”

Jeff Pengelly, former Marine and parent of one of the first level students, came and talked to the children about his work as an active member in the military as part of the Veterans Day celebration.

Students had the opportunity to listen to Pengelly share his story about being an active member of the Marines from 2004-2010. They had the chance to ask questions and get to learn more about what service and sacrifice for our country means.

“Everyone in this school has love and we need to show love for each other,” said one of Miss  May’s first level students.

At the end of Pengelly’s presentation, the students sang the Star Spangled Banner and presented Pengelly with homemade clay bass relief medals representing pride, service, and honor to those who have served in the military.

Starpoint School hopes to continue this service project each year, teaching young students about the importance of Veterans Day and our freedom.