Bethlehem Elementary Students Invite Veterans for Breakfast
Joselyn King Trending
BETHLEHEM -- A good soldier acts more like "Captain America" and less like "The Hulk," Marshall County Magistrate Zach Allman told fellow veterans and young school students Monday.
Bethlehem Elementary School hosted an early Veterans Day breakfast Monday morning. Students at the school had the option of inviting a family member or close family friend to the breakfast, then having their parents then notify the school of their guest by letter, Principal Drew Villani explained.
A total of 33 veterans turned out for the event, which began with the veterans and their accompanying students going outside for the raising of the American flag and the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance.
U.S. Army veteran Andrea Gump, now a recruitment and military career counselor for the Army, served as keynote speaker along with Allman.
A good soldier "embodies physical, intellectual and spiritual strength," Allman explained.
That soldier "can beat you on the battlefield ... beat you in the classroom ... (and just) beat you," he said.
"They are smart, strong and embody a higher purpose than themselves," Allman continued. "They are not big bruisers who slap things like The Hulk. … Real warriors are smart, not just strong.
"Real warriors are superheroes like the veterans sitting next to you. But they're not like The Hulk. They're more like Captain America."
They are a trained soldier, "a warrior" who is dangerous because they think and have a plan, Allman said.
Gump, a 2015 graduate of Wheeling Park High School, said when she was in high school most people thought of her as "a girly girl" who would never make it in the military. But she admired a friend during her childhood, Elsie Baker, who was a military veteran and still looked very feminine in her photos.
Gump said she also wanted to take advantage of joining the military and later having her college tuition covered.
During her stint in the military, she went on to learn to shoot many kinds of weapons, and also edited video footage while in a war zone. She became a certified drone pilot and journalist before taking her current job as an Army recruiter.
Villani informed those present that Bethlehem Elementary is now considered a "Purple Star Award School," a distinction awarded by the Military Child Education Coalition.
The Purple Star School program is designed to help schools "respond to the educational and social-emotional challenges military-connected children face during their transition to a new school and keep them on track to be college, workforce, and life-ready," according to the MCEC. Military-connected refers to children of service members on active duty, and those in the National Guard and Reserves.
Bethlehem Elementary is the third school in Ohio County to become a Purple Star Award School, with the others being West Liberty Elementary and Triadelphia Middle School.
Villani, who also serves as principal at West Liberty Elementary, says there is a child there with a parent who was recently deployed.
The award provides resources to provide any tutoring or "extra love and care" they might need, Villani said.