Each year on Nov. 11,  those who protected our country are celebrated in many ways. This year, Summit saluted the veterans in their community on Nov. 7 with a parade and lunch. Veteran’s day has a unique history that goes back over a century ago, as far back as 1918.

  Summit’s celebration is organized by Cooperative Career Education (CCE) students. CCE teacher Laurie Philipp said that setting up for the event involved a lot of preparation, and that they’ve been working on it since May. 

“It’s a lot of steps of organizing people and asking the secretaries to order tables and [asking] the janitors to get the room ready. My CCE students have been working hard for the last few weeks in class to make the invitations, the name tags, the flyers and get word out, and they’ve made all the decorations,” Phillip said.

The festivities consisted of a parade, a ceremony in the theater, and a lunch in the gym, but senior CCE student Danna Ali described how it wasn’t exactly easy to get everything set up. 

“The challenging [part] was being able to take everything from the theater lobby into the gym because we had to really rush, and it was during lunch, so everybody [was] in our way, and it was very chaotic,” Ali said. 

But who were the veterans that all of the preparation and celebration was for? Countless students understand that these veterans served, but not all understand what exactly they have gone through and what they got out of it. 

People like Pickett, Biver, and Freiberg are the people that these celebrations are recognizing. They honor the time that our community’s veterans have put into serving, which junior Emma Gieseler, who was at the event supporting her grandparents, believes is important.

“[The veterans] serve our country and they sacrifice their time and their lives for it and I think that they should be recognized for that,” Gieseler said

Phillip also said that she thinks that it is essential for all veterans are honored,

so  younger veterans know they are appreciated as well.

“I think it’s important that we make sure that all the time that they spent serving our country and  serving for us [is] recognized and that they don’t get forgotten. I feel like we’re getting to a younger generation of veterans, and it’s really important that they get recognized and know that we honor and support them and what they did,” Phillip said.

To Biver, events in past generations contribute to how he views the importance of honoring the veterans. 

“So many times you look back in history, [veterans are] the people that save the country. That’s why we have the freedom that we have today,” Biver said.