By Julie Slama | [email protected]

At Eastmont Middle School, every student will be involved in honoring veterans and active military this approaching Veterans Day.

“All our students in our language arts classes write letters to our veterans,” Eastmont National Junior Honors Society (NJHS) adviser Russ Fullmer said. “We want the veterans to know how much we appreciate them and we want to get our kids involved in the process of learning about their service and sacrifice.”

The letters are then bound and given to any veteran or active-duty military member in the community, who are invited to the sixth annual Veterans Day breakfast and program, held at Eastmont Middle School, 10100 South 1300 East.

This year, the school will pay tribute to these special guests at 7:30 a.m., Friday, Nov. 8 beginning with the free full breakfast, cooked and prepared by the family and consumer sciences education students. 

The program, which begins at 8 a.m., will begin with NJHS students conducting the flag ceremony. The club officers also will speak and present a slide show.

Eastmont’s NJHS has coordinated this event since its inauguration five years ago, when 50 veterans in the community were thanked by students. These current 50 NJHS members carry a GPA of 3.8 or higher on a 4.0 scale, help with three in-school service projects, as well as contribute at least 10 hours to the community outside of school.

In addition, there will be patriotic songs performed by the 35-member choir. About 85 flags will dot the school campus, honoring the veterans, Fullmer said.

Eastmont is just one of several schools in the area honoring veterans. 

At nearby Park Lane Elementary, students are inviting veterans and active military to join them at the second annual Donuts with Vets.

The continental breakfast of Krispy Kreme donuts, milk, orange juice and chocolate milk will be held at 7:45 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 13 in the school library, 9955 Eastdell Drive.

“We will honor each of our veterans and ask them what branch they served in,” PTA President Shannon Melchior said. “Some will come in their uniforms, which is fun for our students, and we’ll ask how long they served and if they have any special memories of their service they want to share. Then, we’ll read some of the students’ thank-you notes to them.”

There also will be a bulletin board of students’ family members who are serving on display.

“We wanted to do something for our community, to thank them for their contributions and to show our appreciation,” she said.