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Lowellville students take charge to lead city’s first veteran’s day event
LOWELLVILLE
Lowellville always has a Memorial Day ceremony, but it’s never had a Veterans Day event.
Two teachers and a team of about a dozen students from the high school wanted to change that this year.
“This is the first time we’ve ever got together to plan something like this,” said Andrea Hutzler, a junior at Lowellville High School. She said students met with Matt Bradley, a language-arts teacher, and Bob Antonucci, band director for Lowellville schools, weekly since September to figure out how to organize an event to honor veterans.
Although Bradley and Antonucci attend the meetings, both teachers said they attribute a lot of the ideas and decisions to the students.
“They’ve really embraced accountability for starting this ceremony,” Bradley said. “We provided them with a platform to do this in September, and since we started getting together, none of the kids has been afraid to take the lead with it.”
Cole Baird, a senior, said he was one of the first students to jump on board with these meetings. He said he’s felt passionate about planning an event to honor Lowellville veterans because he’s had family in the military.
Antonucci said the number of students coming to the meetings hasn’t wavered much.
“The kids really have followed through in their commitment to the veterans,” he said.
Baird said a breakfast and keynote speaker are planned for the ceremony at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at Lowellville’s school at 52 Rocket Way. He said a luncheon for all veterans who attend will follow the ceremony.
Roy Oliver, the first vice commander of the American Legion Post in Lowellville, said veterans in the group are excited to see Lowellville put on a ceremony for them in the morning.
“This is the first time this has happened here, which is a good thing,” Oliver said. “They planned it at a time that we’re all available — most of us plan to be at the big ceremony in Youngstown at 11 a.m.”
Louis Mamula, a 93-year-old World War II veteran of Lowellville, will be the ceremony’s keynote speaker.
“I’ve known Mamula since I was little,” Baird said. “He used to be a crossing guard for the school, and I remember every Veterans Day, he would dress up in his Marines uniform.”
Mamula said he plans to focus his speech on the armistice from World War I.
“When I grew up, Nov. 11 was known as Armistice Day,” he said. “I want to reclaim it as that Tuesday because that’s what it used to be.”
It’s Mamula’s hope that students won’t forget the meaning of Armistice Day after he shares stories from World Wars I and II.
“My whole theme is ‘lest we forget,’” Mamula said. “We all remember the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and so on. But I want to share that we can’t forget the first world war and who fought those wars.”