Students at Cambria Heights salute veterans

Nov. 23--CARROLLTOWN -- Cambria Heights Elementary School students on Friday morning offered a salute to the service of military veterans from around the area during the school's second annual "Veterans' Day of Appreciation."

Hilary Yahner, the school's principal, said the event began last year as an outgrowth of the American Red Cross' "Holidays for Heroes" program, which is designed to provide thanks and recognition to veterans and active-duty military personnel during the holiday season.

As part of that program last year, Cambria County President Commissioner Thomas Chernisky and representatives from the Red Cross asked Cambria Heights students to make holiday cards to be collected and sent to soldiers serving overseas, Yahner said. For the event's second year, though, she decided it could be made bigger and better.

She explained: "I thought, 'You know, instead of just having Mr. Chernisky and the Red Cross come here just to select cards, we can do better than that.

"We can take the time out of our day to show our veterans how much we truly appreciate them -- the ones that are here and the ones that are still overseas, not with their families.' "

As part of that effort, fifth-grade students Max Wendekier, Reagan Conner, Cara Jacobs, Mason Kline, Levi Kline, Bryce Lewis and Kaitlin Fox read patriotic poems they composed in their English classes, and students from kindergarten through fifth grade sang patriotic songs such as "America," "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Armed Forces Salute."

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