MISD pays tribute to veterans

Posted 11/18/21

Mineola ISD took an event-filled hour last Thursday to commemorate Veterans Day. With students of all grades filling both sides of the bleachers, the Sound of the Swarm seated in a near-perfect semi-circle at the north end of the gym, the choir standing adjacent to the band and a sampling of local veterans as honorees, the ceremony was impactful and well-conducted.

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MISD pays tribute to veterans

Posted

Mineola ISD took an event-filled hour last Thursday to commemorate Veterans Day. With students of all grades filling both sides of the bleachers, the Sound of the Swarm seated in a near-perfect semi-circle at the north end of the gym, the choir standing adjacent to the band and a sampling of local veterans as honorees, the ceremony was impactful and well-conducted.

It is hard to have the Mineola High School music department at a ceremony and not have them be the topic of conversation. To their great credit, so it was also on Veterans Day.

The band offered an empowering version of the national anthem. The choir easily handled the challenging sequence of service songs. The trumpeters blew “Taps” with dignity and emotion, and the finale – “America the Beautiful” – was indeed beautifully performed. The primary school first-graders even made a contribution by coming to the gym solely to perform their version of “American Tears.”

Any ceremony would be fortunate to have such an excellent musical backdrop.  

The most notable aspect of the ceremony was that, all told, 20 students took to the podium throughout the event.

With a remarkably well-behaved school population in attendance, a series of presenters discussed various topics for consideration on this special day. 

Among those were Allie Hooten’s remarks on “The Meaning of Sacrifice,” as well as Cole McKinney’s rundown of a few of the connections between Mineola High School and the military services.

Jack Heard delivered the keynote address. He came to declare that every generation must both carry the burden of the nation’s defense as well as carry forward the sacrifices of the past and what those sacrifices have preserved for all.

After the ceremony, Navy veteran Paul Staton, who had been chided into attending by his co-worker and Mineola High School student Lauren Simmons, said with assurance, “I am glad I came; this was meaningful.”