For the vets: Area schools celebrate Veterans Day

Singing patriotic tunes and waving the red, white and blue, students at Byrd Avenue Elementary School held a Veterans Day Program Wednesday.

About a dozen veterans attended the one-hour ceremony and were treated to breakfast in the school’s cafeteria afterwards. Schools around the parish held similar events, treating veterans to free meals.

The keynote speaker at Byrd Avenue was Whit Gallaspy, a Bogalusa doctor and lieutenant colonel in the National Guard.

Gallaspy, who has served tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan, spoke about what Veterans Day programs like the one at Byrd Avenue mean to veterans.

He encouraged the young students to continue “working hard to keep America the most blessed nation in the universe.”

Students performed several songs during the program and organizers played a slideshow of veterans’ photographs.

Student Ashlyn Seal read a prayer for the continued safety of all veterans.

While such a prayer at a public school might not sit well with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union Principal Tonja Varnado said it was quite appropriate.

“I personally want to say thank you — because we have a right to pray,” she said to the veterans in the audience.