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Email: "WACS students pay tribute to hospitalized veterans"
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WESTFIELD — For some students, Veterans Day is just a day off from school where they can sleep in late, play video games and not worry about homework. But for fourth- and fifth- grade students at Westfield Academy and Central School, the day became a little more significant. Under the guidance of elementary computer teacher Rebecca Huber-Ross, students created cards to send to veterans and soldiers who are currently at a Veterans Administration hospital in Buffalo. The cards thanked the soldiers for serving and included phrases such as “You’re my hero.” “We brainstormed some things, but then they came up with some neat things on their own,” Ms. Huber-Ross said. The idea for the project came after Ms. Huber-Ross was thinking about how many children confuse Veterans Day and Memorial Day. She also had a connection with VA hospitals, as her father, a World War II veteran, had passed away in such a facility. “So I called the VA office in Dunkirk,” Ms. Huber-Ross said, “and the guy called … up to the VA hospital and arranged for us to send cards up there that they could pass out on Nov. 11 to patients in the hospital, but also outpatient and people in the clinic, too.” The project also brought with it a valuable and relevant learning experience, Ms. Huber-Ross said. “With everything that’s going on in the world today, I think they (students) have a sense of the military and what it means to our country to have those people that are serving for us,” she said. “They also have relatives and family members serving, so I think they can develop a personal connection with that and also just to have a better understanding as to why we have the day off from school.” It was such a valuable experience that Ms. Huber-Ross said she hopes to make the project an annual tradition. “I think I would like to keep doing it,” she said. “It felt good.’

 

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