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From left, Army veteran Carl Plourde, Nathaniel Morales, Ron Bowman and Elliot Vivilecchia (back to camera). -
Kenneth Davis Jr. and his father Kenneth of Hancock. -
Veterans David Bell, David Delworth and former SMS Principal Dick Dunning. -
SMS moms Liqin Hong and Xiaoyan Zhang serve breakfast. -
The annual Veterans Breakfast at South Meadow School. -
Army veteran Jonathan Kiley with his daughter, Eleanor. -
Seventh grade teacher Amy Iwanowicz welcomes veterans to the breakfast buffet. -
Veteran Frank McLaughlin talks with student Miles McGuire (back of table), while Colten Fortier talks with Navy veteran John Franklin. -
Vietnam veteran Ron Bowman answers questions from Elliot Vivilecchia. -
From left, Sky Couture, Taylor Hatt, Jacklyn Fournier, and Zoey Carignan. -
Vietnam veteran James Thibodeau, right, and his wife, Lynn, of Peterborough.
Seventh-graders and their veteran pen pals got to meet in person at South Meadow School’s annual Veterans Breakfast on Thursday.
“I come every year, and it is a great thing. It is very, very much appreciated ” said Ron Bowman, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam. “I am sure people can’t imagine how important it is for veterans to be included in events like this.”
Teacher Amy Iwanowicz said each seventh-grader is assigned a veteran and writes them a letter thanking for their service.
“They write the letter thanking their veteran for how much they have done for their country, and it’s attached to an invitation inviting their veteran to the breakfast,” Iwanowicz said. “Each student tells their veteran a little about themselves, and they ask the veterans three things about themselves. Then the veterans write back telling the students about their time in the service. Some of them keep writing back and forth. It is a wonderful experience for the students to send a letter in the mail and get a letter back; some of them have never done that before.”
Don Carrara of Sharon, who served in the Air Force from 1978 to 1992, said he attends the event every year.
“They do a really nice job and it’s always wonderful to meet the students,” he said.
Jonathan Kiley, a veteran of the Army 10th Mountain Division, attended for the first time this year to be with his daughter, Eleanor, who is a seventh-grader.
“I took the day off of from work to be here this year,” he said.
James Thibodeau, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran who has lived in Peterborough since 1984, told student Gabriella Sanders about some of the lighter moments in his career.
“I was at Fort Pendleton in California; they used our unit in a lot of Hollywood movies and TV shows. We were right on the beach, a lot of times when they had to film a beachhead landings, they would film us doing it,” he said. “We were in movies John Wayne and all the stars. We loved it, because they would give us a beer chit afterwards.”
Kenneth Davis Jr., a Navy veteran who grew up in Hancock and graduated from ConVal, came from Maine to attend the breakfast with his father Kenneth, who was a Marine. The younger Davis said his son is also a veteran.
John Franklin, a former editor of the Monadnock Ledger and a Navy veteran, told student Colten Fortier about his around-the-world trip to Vietnam on a destroyer escort ship.
“Our ship started in Newport, R.I., and we literally went all the way around the world, ending up in Vietnam. Our mission was anti-submarine warfare,” he said. “Bet you can’t name a place in the world I haven’t served at.”
Fortier said he was amazed to learn how many places Franklin had been to.
“I learned a lot about how many different things you can do in the Navy and how many different places there are to go,” he said. “I never knew that.”