150 students from New Boston gathered with the public at the New Boston Veterans Memorial Monday. American Legion Post 121 Commander Doug Ramer spoke about the need for more people to volunteer to serve in the military. New Boston Elementary Principal Dr. Teresa Ibouhouten says it’s a valuable experience for the students.
American Legion Post 121 Commander Doug Ramer, “But it’s great they come down here and I hope they learn something. I just read an article, we lost 700,000 veterans in the last 10 years and there are only 1% veterans in the country, so they’re running out of veterans. That’s why the volunteerism thing is always important. Well, this community built this beautiful memorial. We raised a ton of money for this and Lackey Monument, who put it all, he said this is the prettiest memorial that he’s put in, so we take good care of it.”
New Boston Elementary Principal Dr. Teresa Ibouhouten, “I think it was a great honor to be able to come down here. I think they’ve learned all week about what a veteran is and the importance of free election and people who give their lives for our country and to wrap it up with seeing these great men and women, I think it’s meaningful for them. And last year we actually had several of these people come in and they did a flag folding ceremony and talked to individual classes.”
Featured Speaker Amy Hess spoke to the kids about the rights we have as Americans because of our Veterans. The ceremony concluded with a 21 gun salute.