NASHUA – A line of about 20 veterans made their way down the hallway of Birch Hill Elementary School on Friday morning as dozens of students showed their thanks to the former servicemen and women in a unusual way: high-fives.
The veterans were gathered for the school’s annual Veterans Day assembly, at which students sang and played patriotic songs, shared insights about the federal holiday and learned about the sacrifices that members of the military make every day.
For the veterans involved, the unique show of thanks was the highlight of the day.
“To see all those kids in there, you have no idea what it means,” said Louis Prince, of Nashua, a 92-year-old World War II veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
Another veteran joked, “Now I know how (President) Obama feels.”
Principal Mark Lucas said creating this connection between the students and those who have served is an important goal of the annual assembly, and throughout the event he shared the importance of remembering the nation’s veterans.
“A veteran is someone who wrote a blank check to the United States of America for an amount up to and including their life,” he told students.
Students stood and shared the history of Veterans Day, including the meaning behind the red paper poppies all students and staff wore at the assembly.
The poppy imagery has been popular on Memorial Day and Veterans Day ever since 1921 with the formation of the American Legion Auxiliary Poppy Program. The program results in millions of paper poppies, handmade by veterans as part of therapeutic rehabilitation, which are distributed around the country in exchange for donations to veterans service organizations.
The story of the poppy goes back even further to the battlefields of World War I, where soldiers brought home stories of a barren landscape transformed by wild poppies, red like the blood shed during battles. The poppy became a symbol of the lives sacrificed in war.![]()
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