Happy Veterans Day 2023

Veterans Day has been a major ceremonial event at both my current school and my previous one. I've spent at least the last 17 years honoring the men and women who have served our country and the gratitude we have as Americans. I've annually shared that moment with school children and our school community. Highlighting the importance of those who have served for our American freedoms to our youngsters is wonderful way to showcase the beauty of that sacrifice. It truly is a uniting holiday... and one divisive politicians should honor more often.

Earlier in the week, I shared this video with our 5th grade students who were our Lower School leaders for Veterans Day school community assembly. For the last month these students had been compiling research on the 6 branches of military and the history of Veterans Day to be our resident experts. By the time we'd watched this video, they were already well-schooled in the information so it served as a reinforcement for all that they had already learned. For those of you who might need to brush up on your Veterans Day history, today's a good day to do it. 

Thank you to those who have fought for our freedoms. 

Video from https://youtu.be/mWD4Oy6fKlo?si=jUPO4jHg6Y3ghxjl, image from https://department.va.gov/veterans-day/

Planning For a Zero Waste Thanksgiving

Food waste in America accounts for approximately 30-40% of our food supply. With Thanksgiving ahead and while you are planning your feast for 1 to 21, here are some great thoughts for shooting for a zero waste Thanksgiving this year.

For more ideas on this, check out my GTG post from 2 years ago.

An additional note on Thanksgiving:

In many communities, Covid cases are at record levels (as they are for us in America as a nation). In my local area, our county council has limited indoor events to 10 or under (outdoor events to 25) due to Covid counts. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, please go forward as safe as possible. Masks, distancing, and maybe even rethinking your typical traditions to follow suit to your own local restrictions. Let's go forward thinking about our over-saturated hospitals overloaded with too many Covid cases and weighing down our health care workers. Let's do it thinking about our loved ones, who hopefully we can see at Christmas rather than risking them. Part of Thanksgiving is being grateful for all we have--let's be thankful for our freedoms while also taking caring of each other. That's what our Veterans, who we just celebrated last week, would do.

Video from https://youtu.be/-E4242LSJWg, image from https://www.wastewiseproductsinc.com/blog/recycling-tips/how-to-go-zero-waste-this-thanksgiving/ (where you'll find more good tips!)

Honoring Our Veterans 2017

This week I’ve been doing a lot of compiling & editing videos created by our 5th Graders for our Veterans Day Assembly at school on Monday. In the videos, 5th Graders are interviewing a Veteran: their uncle, grandpa, dad, mom, or friend of the family.

In watching these & hearing the experiences & memories of so many our Military men and women...and in watching the interactions between the youngsters and their elders, this year’s Veterans Day is particularly meaningful and heartfelt! Thank you to all who have served on our behalf! 

For more on my thoughts on Veterans Day, go to my 2015 post.

Image from http://www.wishesgreeting.com/happy-veterans-day-quotes/

Celebrating 11:11 AM on Veteran's Day

Picture 5 soldiers, standing straight and tall, in a line, side beside. One tall representative for each branch of the 5 branches of military: Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines, and Air Force. Standing at attention, honoring all of those who have come before them to fight for our freedoms, and honoring all of those who are yet to come,

In a way,  Anthem Veterans Memorial in  Anthem Community Park in Anthem, AZ is like that line of attentive soldiers. However, something environmentally magical happens on 11-11 at 11:11 am. That's November 11th: Veterans Day. The placement of the five pillars align in the most perfectly planned way.  It was engineered so that the sun would directly align on a mosaic of the United States' Great Seal through the precision-cut elipses within and throughout the marvelously metallic pillars. Military environmental and engineering magic indeed!

41703 N. Gavilan Peak Pkwy.
Anthem, AZ

And then there are the bricks. Each paver in the ground has names of men and women who have been in the service. The red if the bricks, the gleaming white if the 5 pillars, and the backdrop of a blue sky further commemorate the day in patriotic color.

The park was dedicated Nov. 11th, 2011

To learn about  what when into the memorial and how it was engineered, click here to see an interview with Jim Martin, Chief Engineer.

This is my environmental tribute to Veterans' Day--what's yours?

Image from https://clubrunner.blob.core.windows.net/00000004046/Images/veterans-day-2016.jpg; video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQaA-M8DRyA