Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511120005
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Timmy Burns ran over to the wall in the school lobby and pointed to the name of his grandfather, a veteran of World War II.
"He sort of saved his base from the enemy," said the fourth-grader at South Salem Elementary School. "The watch guy fell asleep," and his grandfather went back to the base to alert the soldiers.
Burns' grandfather is only one of hundreds named on the "Wall of Freedom," a project of the school's teachers and administrators to honor U.S. veterans.
South Salem teachers Carol Collier and Tootie Brown said they wanted to do something this Veterans Day that would spark participation from the students.
Another teacher at the school, whose husband served in Vietnam, suggested that the school make a wall with names of veterans - similar to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., but on a much smaller scale.
Collier and Brown solicited names of veterans from students, parents and teachers. They wrote the names on yellow strips of paper and pasted them to a stretch of brick-red bulletin-board paper, matching the brick wall where it was mounted.
The names "came in large numbers," Collier said.
She counted more than 750 names on the wall Thursday afternoon. The names of living veterans were placed on the left side of the wall, and the names of those who have died were placed on the right.
The wall has helped the elementary students realize the significance of Veterans Day, said Joe Coleman, South Salem principal.
"It puts them in touch with relatives that made contributions to the freedom of our nation," he said.
Students gathered around the wall Thursday after their lunch break to point out names of relatives and friends.
"I didn't know there would be this much in this area," said fifth-grader Page Crew.
One student shared why he thought veterans should be honored.
``'Cause they saved other countries and our country from being taken over," said John James Guidi VI, a fifth-grader. He pointed to the the name of his grandfather, John James Guidi IV, who served in the Army.
Second-grader Adam Fisher brought a silk rose to school Thursday to lay at the foot of the wall in memory of his grandfather.
Collier also said someone slipped into the school early Thursday and placed a bouquet of flowers at the foot of the wall.
The school will maintain the wall through Dec. 7, Collier said, and she hopes more names can be added.
by CNB