Locust Valley High School seniors welcomed veterans and active service members to the school auditorium on May 28 for the annual Flags for Freedom ceremony. The partnership between the district and local organization Operation Democracy, who worked together on September’s Remembrance Bowl football game and curriculum, continued with this celebration of our military heroes.
Veterans from the Bayville American Legion’s Robert H. Spittel Post 1285 and Locust Valley American Legion’s Howard Van Wagner Post 962 served as honored guests, and gifted students with a tri-folded American flag, a copy of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and information about flag code and the origins of the design. The organization Military Blue Star Mothers was also part of the veneration of our veterans.
Army veteran Al Staab, a member of the high school’s athletic hall of fame and a 2006 graduate, was the keynote speaker. Staab gifted the school a flag and an anti-vehicle round that hit the helicopter he served as the gunner for while he served in Iraq.
Flags for Freedom continues the district’s longstanding relationship with Operation Democracy to instill in students the incredible bravery of our service members and the importance of the flag as a symbol of the freedom they have fought for.