Veterans Day meets Christmas as students present their ‘Hometown Heroes’ book

Veterans Day met Christmas on Friday as the students in Gina Reynolds’ creative writing class at Double Churches Middle School celebrated the culmination of their two-month project.

Ten students in grades 7-8 interviewed seven Disabled American Veterans members in October then wrote their stories. With the addition of photos and artwork, the result is a 52-page, hardcover book titled “Hometown Heroes” and published by the Muscogee County School District’s print shop.

Double Churches literacy coach Kim Cason called Reynolds an “incredible” English language arts teacher. “She thinks out of the box. She wants her kids to actually have real-world applications for what they’re doing.”

Reynolds returned the compliment, calling Cason a “shining star” for working behind the scenes on the project.

Through the project, the students honed their communication and collaboration skills, Cason said. They also connected more meaningfully to veterans, she said.

The students learned, Reynolds said, “the real-life stories behind being in the military, both the good and the bad. They were upfront and personal with aspects of the Vietnam War, the Iraq War and one soldier who served at the end of World War II. They were able to have a better understanding of certain trades in the military, that it’s not just going in and marching and saluting.”

The students also learned, Reynolds said, “the whole journalistic process is far more grueling than they had anticipated. They had to go back three or four times with the proof. They realized that gathering information and putting it on paper is not as easy as they thought it was.”

Since they conducted the interviews, Reynolds told the veterans, “these kids stood a little taller and a little straighter, and some of them decided that they will never take a knee (during the Pledge of Allegiance) because of what y’all had said to them. … There’s no textbook that could teach what you brought to them. So I say thank you.”

Cason, holding back tears, told the veterans, “You brought it home to them, and you touched their hearts. Thank you for that. We need more of that collaboration. We really do.”

The Muscogee chapter of the Disabled American Veterans is a Partner in Education with Double Churches Middle School, and their members were invited to participate in this project. The veterans who were interviewed are Jerome Bledsoe, Danny Ginter, Robert Goddard, Abdur Hassan, John D. Kennedy, Willie Sider and Lani Tucker. The students who interviewed them are Dylan Burns, Destiny Craig, Jared Dallas, Lemia Favors, Va’Deja Johnson, Maddie Lee, Sarah Beth McVay, Victoria Rathel, Angelina Taylor and Nora Wing. Kayla Shanahan and Angelina created artwork for the book.

Dylan, an eighth-grader, said his interview with Ginter “brightened my heart.” Sarah Beth, a seventh-grader, said her interview with Goddard taught her “it takes a real man to do what he did for our country.”

Bledsoe and Tucker were among the five veterans who opened their gift-wrapped copies during Friday’s celebration.

Tucker served in the U.S. Army from 1975-1996, including deployments to Germany and South Korea. She retired as a staff sergeant after nearly 21 years of service.

Being part of this project has “meant the world to me,” Tucker said, “honored that we can let these kids know what the tradition of serving our country is like. So maybe they can carry on the tradition and know why we’re so patriotic and why we’re upset about people taking a knee, because those people that take a knee have never had a flag given to them for somebody who lost their life serving their country.”

Seeing her copy of the book, Tucker said, “It’s an honor that somebody wanted to know a little bit about what it was like for women when it was rough, right after Vietnam, and also as an MP, because the men, even my partners, didn’t want females. So we’ve hurdled over that hill and maybe helped other women along the line.”

Lemia, an eighth-grader, said she learned from Tucker “no matter what obstacles you go through in life, you can still come out with what she did.”

Bledsoe retired as a first sergeant after 26 years in the Army, including deployments to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Grenada, Panama, South Korea and Germany. He lost his right leg during the Iraq War.

Seeing his copy of the book, Bledsoe said, “Wow. This is unreal.”

Nora, an eighth-grader, said interviewing Bledsoe helped her appreciate “how hard it can be in the military but how you can get through hard times by believing in your family,” she said.

Such conversations and such books “spreads out wide and give more attention to the veterans,” Bledsoe said.

When she finally saw the book, Nora said, she gushed, “It’s amazing what words can come to be when you put them together.”

Double Churches principal Craig Fitts said the three-year partnership with the DAV goes back to the relationship Fitts had with Ginter when they taught at Jordan Vocational High School. Ginter is president of the DAV’s Muscogee chapter.

The partnership started with the chapter donating more than $500 in art supplies to Double Churches.

Fitts told the veterans, “I’m just so happy that we have found a way that we can kind of give back to you, give you something tangible as to our appreciation for all of you and your service to our country and your service to Double Churches Middle School, because this is truly a partnership that I cherish and that we want to continue for years to come.”

Fitts also praised the students and teachers for their work on the project.

“It truly shows what Double Churches Middle School Wildcat pride is all about,” he said.

This story was originally published December 16, 2016 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Veterans Day meets Christmas as students present their ‘Hometown Heroes’ book."