Harmony Grove students pay tribute to fallen veterans

Harmony Grove School District students made their annual trip to the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock on Monday, March 10, to honor fallen veterans.

Steven Veazey, Cemeteries Division Director for the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, teaches students the importance of remembering fallen veterans

 Each student was assigned one veteran interred at the cemetery to research and submit a report.

“It felt good to be honoring these people,” said Lily Spinks, a sixth-grade student from Harmony Grove Middle School. “I feel like I’ve accomplished something.”

 The students spent months researching the lives of service members who served during various times of war.

 Brandon Bagwell of the Harmony Grove School District led the research. Last fall, the National History Day Foundation selected him as the only teacher in the state to guide the project.

 “They had to research census data, the ancestry classroom, and draft records. We tracked down yearbooks and newspaper articles. There were lots of different resources we had to go through to find the information,” Bagwell said.

 This year’s theme was “Silent Heroes: Untold Stories of the Korean War,” which was sponsored by the Veterans Legacy Program and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

 The project ended with a tour of the State Veterans Cemetery. Students were then able to locate their assigned veterans' gravesites and read the brief eulogy they prepared based on their research.

Story by Mark Woodall