By Jana Hill
For The Herald
MILL CREEK — Anyone who walks through the doors of Heatherwood Middle School this week will be reminded of the people who served in the U.S. armed forces.
Heatherwood’s Wall of Honor features the names of people familiar to teachers and students there. Some were lost in the nation’s wars, others returned to discuss their personal military service history with their families.
Chuck Booth, Heatherwood’s new principal this year, brought the idea of the wall from Tyee Middle School in Bellevue, where he used to work. He started it when he was assistant principal about seven years ago.
He said the project helps students connect with the fact that Veterans Day is more than just a day off from school. Each addition to Heatherwood’s wall is recorded on a small paper form and added to categories that include conflicts from the Indian Wars to the Persian Gulf War, and peacetime duty.
The project was not required for students, but flyers were distributed to teachers to let their students know they could add names to the wall, which will be displayed through Friday.
Cori Jones teaches seventh-grade math and science at Heatherwood. She added 17 names to the wall, tracing back to her great, great, great grandfather who served during the Civil War. Her great uncle was in World War I and her paternal grandfather was in World War II. During peacetime, her sister-in-law served in the Navy National Guard.
She said the wall is doing what is intended — getting kids talking to their families about personal connections to national service.
She noted that the wall teaches children to realize sacrifices were made "not just by people who are killed." The people who serve in the military take their "whole life and put it on hold."
Robert Oxford and Mark Domingo, both in eighth grade, were drawn to the wall by a 8-by-10 photo collage with a picture of a man in uniform and the American flag. Domingo said the wall "seemed interesting when I saw that picture there. I just had to look at it."
The visual memorial that drew Oxford and Domingo was for the father of Julie Koons, a seventh-grade block teacher at Heatherwood who lived in Mill Creek for 22 years before moving to Marysville.
She decided to share his story — he was killed in World War II — "because I’m very proud of my Dad. And it’s very emotional for me, but I feel real good at least 900 kids are going to see a picture of my Dad."
Her father enlisted right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. Enlisting made it possible for him to be a pilot, she said. He got his wish and was stationed in England but was shot down over Germany. Koons met her father only as an infant.
"I’m truly a love child, and he died when he was only 23," Koons said.
Seventh-graders Julia Carlson and Jennifer Wilson also added names to the wall. Wilson has family members who served in both world wars and Vietnam. Carson’s father is a Navy Seal and may end up serving in the war against terrorism.
Wilson calls the wall "a good deed" and said she visits one of her grandfathers every Veterans Day.
Jenna Mohrweis, another seventh grader, has two grandfathers who served in World War II.
"I think it’s nice how the community can come together," she said. "It’s nice that we remember this stuff."
Jana Hill is the editor of the Mill Creek Enterprise weekly newspaper. You can call her at 425-673-6533 or send e-mail to jhill@heraldnet.com
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