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Fitch students lunch, connect with vets
By JUSTIN DENNIS
AUSTINTOWN
Former Marine Col. Brian Kennedy’s service took him to every continent but Antarctica, he said. He said he “knew” when it was time to retire, but after 25 years, he wasn’t sure what that meant.
“One of the biggest challenges when you get out [of the military] is figuring out how you continue to serve beyond the uniform,” Kennedy said.
The Poland Seminary High School graduate was one of more than 30 highly decorated veterans who shared their lunch Wednesday with Austintown Fitch students eager to learn from him and hear stories about their service.
“This generation of kids, they may not have a family member that’s a veteran,” said Superintendent Vince Colaluca. “This is a great way for our kids to connect with the veterans in a very unique way.”
It was Kennedy’s first time at the high school’s Lunch with a Veteran. For the students, the annual event is tradition, said senior Mason Green, adding he looks forward to it every year.
The luncheon is a time to learn from those who lived through politically and emotionally charged conflicts like the Vietnam War and hear accounts that didn’t make it into the history books.
“Their battle was every day,” Green said. “You don’t get that in the history books.”
For some veterans, it may be the first time they’ve told anyone what war was like for them, said Ken Jakubec, a veteran and former school board member who oversees veterans’ committees in the district.
“A lot of these guys, it’s a release to get out and talk to these kids,” he said. “It’s just hard to talk about – all the destruction and everything that went on over there; the way they were treated.
“[Austintown is] a veteran-friendly school, and these guys are honored to come here. They really feel like they’re welcome here,” Jakubec said.
As veterans filed into the auditorium for a photo with the student body and a special performance from the high-school choir, sophomore Ty Burnip shook as many hands as he could, garbed in all stars-and-stripes pattern beneath a wide-brimmed hat.
Jakubec said some veterans who attended a special dinner at the high school last year said it was the first time anyone thanked them for their service. Vietnam veterans didn’t get a hero’s homecoming, he said.
“That shocked me, and it was kind of disgusting to hear,” said Lanie Simons, a founding member of the school’s student-led veterans’ committee and whose grandfather served in Vietnam.
“It wasn’t a war story that stuck with me, it was how they were coping or dealing with it after. ... When I was growing up, I was always taught to respect veterans and thank them any way I can.”
Earlier this year, the district received a Purple Star Award from the Ohio Department of Education, awarded to schools dedicated to serving military students and their families.