“Home of the Free because of the Brave,” reads the main entrance bulletin board. Beneath it lies the silhouette of a soldier down on one knee, behind him, a blue star-scattered background. The display was just one of the various ways seniors Cami Slingerland, Sam Mortara, and Payton Dorsch decided to honor veterans for their recent DECA project.

Carmela Calafiore and Stephanie Spiridon first brought the project to the students’ attention. The two had asked their class to “choose a cause they felt passionate about,” and create a project which focused on that cause.

The trios objective was to create a project in which they could increase student involvement and further the sense of community at DHS. Mortara says the girls felt a project centered on raising awareness for veterans was the “perfect way to achieve that while also bringing awareness to something that truly matters.”

“We felt that this cause is something that could make an impact on both the community and directly on the people that we were working with,” added Dorsch.

Having had a father who had served in the United States Airforce, this project hit close to home for Slingerland. She expressed how“people like him aren’t recognized as being veterans due to the fact that he and many others served during peacetime.” She stressed the importance of acknowledging service of any kind because it is still a sacrifice. “Serving during a time of peace doesn’t make a veteran any less brave,” she stressed.

Going into the project, Slingerland carried the hope that it would simply help the students of DHS become “aware of how fortunate they are to live in a country with such freedom.”

The students organized their remembrance events with the guidance of Spiridon and Calafiore. “We came up with ideas like sending boxes of donations and Christmas cards and they helped us to implement those activities into the advisories and also [with] connecting with a contact overseas”, says Mortara.

On the Thursday before Veterans Day, a 15 minute ceremony was held during the advisory announcements. Over the loudspeaker, the school’s own choir group—The Madrigals—sang the national anthem, ROTC members read a remembrance script, and the veterans on the DHS Staff were named and thanked.

Dorsch expressed how much this memorial meant to her, “seeing the school come together for a common cause was very powerful to me. I didn’t realize how much of an impact our school can have when we all come together.”

Five men from the local Veterans Association received an invitation to visit during advisory and lunch periods. Students were welcomed to meet with the veterans and express their gratitude to the men.

Multiple opportunities were given to the student body to celebrate their gratitude for veterans both locally and internationally during their advisory periods as well. A door decorating contest was held, where advisories decorated their classroom doors in a way they felt honored veterans. Furthermore, students created holiday greeting cards sent to currently serving members of the military. These cards were then sent to the Red Cross for their “Holidays for Heroes” campaign.

Donations of puzzles, snacks, and batteries were collected to send to a military base in Iraq. In order to send these boxes overseas, the girls’ had to raise funds to cover the shipping costs. Through a Krispy Kreme fundraiser and donations from generous visitors on conference night, $300 were raised and the packages were sent on their way soon after.

However, the girls are still not finished with the project. They plan on creating yet another fundraiser where holiday gift baskets are created and raffled at the faculty holiday party.

“I often am too preoccupied in my own life to take the time to reflect on others lives. I find that this project has helped me understand how some people are so selfless, they spend all their time looking out for others,” Slingerland says.

“I have a lot of families who have been in or is in the military. This [project] has heightened my gratitude for the service they have given to our country and the sacrifices they have made,” Mortara added.

The three hope that their project can help the community realize that “it doesn’t matter the scale of the efforts, it’s about how meaningful they are.”