ADDISON COUNTY — From visiting local cemeteries to hosting student-led ceremonies, there are multiple ways schools around Addison County are planning to commemorate Memorial Day this year.

Some learning communities will continue to observe decades-old traditions, while others are preparing for newer events to honor those who have died while serving in the line of duty.

At Bristol Elementary School, principal Aaron Boynton is organizing a student-led Memorial Day ceremony slated for Friday, May 23, at 9 a.m. He noted the school used to hold a Memorial Day ceremony, and now in his second year at the school, he’s looking to bring back a newer iteration of the event.

“I think it’s important for children and students to know and understand what Memorial Day is about, and why we have it,” he told the Independent. “I try to help them recognize that it’s not just a long weekend at the end of May; it’s not just a day off, an unofficial start of summer. It has a real and important meaning. To have them understand and recognize the meaning of it is important to me.”

Boynton said there are upwards of 20 students in grades 3-6 taking part in this year’s ceremony. Pupils will read poems and speeches, a group of students will perform “Taps,” and third graders will sing a song.

He noted that students volunteered to take part in the ceremony.

“I looked for students that wanted to not only be part of this, but also students that we knew would take this seriously,” he said.

The Bristol American Legion’s Color Guard will attend to present the colors, and Boynton will play the bagpipes toward the end of the event.

He noted the ceremony is open to all Bristol Elementary parents and families.

MICHAEL DAVIS OF the Sons of the American Legion in Vergennes passes out flags for Vergennes Union Elementary School students to place in St. Peter’s Cemetery. Each year, the students recognize Memorial Day by placing the flags and putting together a VUES Memorial Wall honoring those who have served and since died.
Photo courtesy of Josh Brooks

LINCOLN

At the nearby Lincoln Community School, students are expected to continue the tradition of honoring Memorial Day with a march to Maple Cemetery. In previous years, students have heard remarks from the school principal and United Church of Lincoln minister.

Last year, students heard from retired pastor David Wood, as well as Lincoln resident Brian Frazier and his two sons, Ian and Mason — both of whom are LCS alums. Frazier’s family has a long history of service in the U.S. military, and he is a member of several military and civil fraternal organizations, including the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the Major General James A. Garfield Camp 62, which is headquartered in Lincoln.

This year’s visit to Maple Cemetery was scheduled for the morning of Thursday, May 22.

Meanwhile, a couple local elementary schools have some commemorative events on and just after Memorial Day.

First-grade girls at Neshobe Elementary in Brandon have the option to lay flowers at the Monument after the Memorial Day Parade in Brandon.

The next day, May 27, students and staff at New Haven’s Beeman Elementary will hold their annual Memorial Day walk to the Evergreen Cemetery on Town Hill Road. There they will place flags and/or flowers on service members’ graves.

That same day, students at Otter Creek Academy (the former Leicester Central School) will walk to the cemetery to perform a small Memorial Day ceremony.

LINCOLN COMMUNITY SCHOOL students and staff in May 2024 continued the school’s decades-long tradition of honoring Memorial Day with a walk to Maple Cemetery. Students last year were joined by, from right, retired pastor David Wood and Lincoln resident Brian Frazier, whose family has a long line of service in the U.S. military.
Photo courtesy of Tory Riley

VERGENNES

Over the past several years, students at Vergennes Union Elementary School have observed Memorial Day in a couple of different ways.

Each year, the learning community sets up an annual “VUES Memorial Wall” to remember friends and family members who died while serving their country, as well as those who served in the armed forces and have since died.

Josh Brooks teaches fifth grade at VUES. He said members of the school community were invited to send in photos of their loved ones beginning in early May.

“We post those photos on our VUES Memorial Wall, along with their name, rank, details of their service, and the names of children and staff at VUES they are connected to,” he said. “After talking about the meaning of the word ‘solemn,’ we have a short ceremony where students take turns placing photos on the wall and reading the person’s name. This is what really makes Memorial Day and its meaning personal.”

He said the wall is kept up through the end of the school year so members of the community can visit, and the school posts an online link to the memorial wall in its weekly newsletter.

For the past several years, sixth graders at VUES have placed flags at the St. Peter’s Cemetery, located off South Maple Street in Vergennes. Fifth graders at the elementary school are carrying on that tradition this year, as sixth graders now attend Vergennes Union Middle School.

This year, pupils also placed flags at the Vergennes Burying Ground, which is at the corner of School Street and Mountain View Lane.

Brooks noted that ahead of placing flags, students take part in a short overview of Memorial Day, how it started and why it is celebrated in a different way than Veterans Day.

“Michael Davis of the Sons of the American Legion in Vergennes meets us at the cemetery and gives the kids a quick lesson in flag etiquette and the role the Legion and its members play in the city’s Memorial Day commemoration. He also brings new flags for the students to place,” he said.

Students place flags about two to three weeks before Memorial Day, Brooks said, since community members are getting ready to visit and clean up family gravesites as spring gets underway. Typically, about 30 to 40 students take part in placing flags.

Brooks acknowledged that while history is about big events and their impacts, it’s also about people.

“All year long, we look for ways to make a personal connection with the past.  It makes history real, but it also plants a seed — that the impact of history is all around us, especially in our own community,” he explained. “This is a way for 5th graders to connect the past, present, and future, as well as giving them an opportunity to serve their community in their own way”