What brought this 5-th grader and her classmates together with Honor Flight veteran Jim Mason on Flag Day?
Volney Elementary Flag Day Highlights The Power of a Letter
On June 14th, Volney Elementary School in the Fulton City School District had its annual Flag Day celebration. Every student constructs a writing piece entitled What The Flag Means To Me, and a representative from each grade level is selected to read their writing piece at the assembly. Every year a veteran is honored at the assembly to instill in the students that without our veterans, there is no flag to fly or honor. The annual assembly is always a special day, but this year it was extra special. All because of the power of a letter, one letter.
Back in March, Rob Schoeneck, Vice President of Honor Flight Syracuse, called Volney 5th grade teacher Bill Cahill and asked if his students and and teammate Stephanie Zimmerman’s students, could write letters to the 81 Veterans heading to Washington DC on the April 27th Honor Flight Mission #20. On the flight home, the veterans get one last military style mail call. The Veterans’ names are barked out, they raise their hand and are handed a large yellow envelope full of letters from loved ones and students. The Volney fifth graders got to work and made sure each of the eighty one veterans on Mission #20 received at least one letter, some students wrote 4-5 letters to make sure everyone received at least one from Volney.
A few days after the April 27th flight, the phone in Volney Principal Liz Stoddard’s office rang. On the other end of the phone was one of the Honor Flight participants, retired Navy Seabee Senior Chief Jim Mason. He was calling from his home in Cape Vincent and he wanted to talk to someone about a letter he received from Volney fifth grader Natalie Holmes. Principal Stoddard recalled the conversation:
“Mr. Mason was very sweet and told me how meaningful and special Natalie’s letter was and how much it meant to him. He expressed his interest in coming to Volney to meet Natalie and he also wanted to meet the parents of the young lady who wrote such a lovely and creative letter. The conversation lasted about 25 minutes and by the end of it Mr. Mason and I were both emotional, her letter was so meaningful to him. Then a few days after the call, I received a letter from Mr. Mason affirming his desire to visit and there was also a letter to pass along to Natalie letting her know how touched he was by her letter.”
After the phone call, Stoddard called Bill Cahill to fill him in on the conversation and see what he thought about a visit from Senior Chief Mason. Cahill suggested that Mason be named their Flag Day Honoree, making June 14th the date he would meet Natalie and her parents. Cahill then called Mr. Mason to iron out the details:
“When I talked to the Senior Chief on the phone, he liked the idea of coming for Flag Day and told me he wanted to present Natalie with a wooden flag he had made and also wanted to know if he could say a few words to the students at the assembly. I quickly agreed because I do not outrank a Senior Chief!”
At the assembly, after a student from each grade level read their writing pieces, Liz Stoddard addressed the students and told them the story of how Mr. Mason ended up being their guest that morning and emphasized power of one written letter.
“Obviously in the age we are living in, electronic emails and text messages are our primary form of written communication but we should never abandon letters and the written word. It was a great opportunity to tell our kids how powerful a handwritten note or letter can be. What has transpired between Natalie and Mr. Mason is such a heartwarming story and a great example of the power of kindness conveyed through writing a letter.”
Then Stoddard asked the author of that one letter, Natalie Holmes, to come up and meet the special guest who was there because of her letter. The new pen pals shared a hug and Mason presented her with a wooden American Flag that he made, complete with a written message on the back and Seabee logo burned into the wood.
Then the Senior Chief, in uniform, addressed the students, chuckling that the students who had read their essays had stolen a lot of his material! Mason went on to talk about the symbolism of the flag, what serving your country means, and some historical events that involved the American Flag.
At the conclusion of the assembly, many students came up to thank the Senior Chief for his service, some taking pictures with him. On their way out of the cafeteria students could be heard saying that they wanted to write a letter to a veteran. It would seem the power of one letter is going to inspire the writing of many more. Our Veterans deserve nothing less.
