Desi Cuddihy teaches fourth grade at Snoqualmie Elementary School. Every year for the past 10 years, she has asked her students to organize an assembly for local veterans in honor of Veterans Day. This year’s fourth-grade class followed tradition with its own assembly.
The event consisted of two main parts: a welcome reception in the library where veterans and their family could enjoy coffee and breakfast, and a formal assembly honoring the veterans through a PowerPoint presentation and the class’s performance of traditional American songs such as “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “I love the Mountains,” and “America the Beautiful.”
Cuddihy said she really enjoys having her class plan this event every year.
“The kids are so proud to take on the responsibility, and they’re so happy to make the veterans feel honored,” she said. “It’s also great for the kids to see exactly how much work goes into making an event like this…I think it helps them learn and understand how to work together and take responsibility.”
The fourth grade class said they were excited but nervous to take on such a large and important event on Nov. 9. To help divide the work, the class split into several committees including the reception committee, the food committee and the decoration committee.
Shuja Karim, part of the class’s reception committee, said it took the class about a month to organize the event.
“The class just wanted to honor their local veterans and it took a long time to do everything, but I think it’ll be good,” he said.
As part of the assembly, there were three students who volunteered to deliver speeches. Anna Giles, Jack Lindsay and Vagram Mirzoyan said they each wrote their own speeches but helped each other during the editing process.
“We really want to make the veterans feel welcome and good and special,” Mirzoyan said. “Kind of like it’s their birthday but better.”
According to Sgt. Jay Spaulding, a U.S. Air Force veteran, he said he did feel special.
“It’s always a very moving event,” he said. “It really touches your heart.”
Peter Gabryjelski, part of the reception committee and a boy scout, said he and the class took planning the assembly seriously, and that he’s really proud of what his class could accomplish.
“Everyone worked really hard on this, and I think it went really well,” he said. “I hope all the veterans felt special because they deserve it.”
Ms. Cuddihy’s fourth grade class sing patriotic songs at Snoqualmie Elementary’s Veterans Day assembly. Madison Miller/staff photo.
Ms. Cuddihy’s fourth-grade class hosts veterans at the school’s Veterans Day assembly. From left: Maanha Rahman, Aryna Kravtsova and Anna Giles. Madison Miller/staff photo.
