Students in Vernon Public Schools have been making handmade cards for veterans ahead of Veterans Day on Thursday.
Those students made 1,750 cards this year to pass out to veterans in nursing homes, the state veterans home and restaurants in the area that offer free meals to veterans for Veterans Day.
The school district started the tradition about nine years ago when they started having school on Veterans Day.
“You can’t plan for the future without knowing where you’ve been in the past. I think the service that our veterans have done for us for hundreds of years needs to be commemorated, remembered and understood," said Vernon Public Schools Superintendent Joseph Macary.
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Macary created the challenge to see how many cards each school could make and this year, Maple Street School won again with their students making the most cards.
One fifth grader in particular made 20 cards herself.
"I hope they feel like appreciated," said 10-year-old Amanda Davila.
Tammy Salminen is retired from the Navy. One of the students gave her a card with a drawing of a woman veteran on the front. She said it touched her.
“Complete bliss because we don’t get recognized enough being female veterans and this being a female veteran card shows that they actually are starting to recognize us as children and that’s important to me," Salminen said.
Salminen and veteran Donald Butler will go around delivering the hundreds of cards on Wednesday, ahead of Veterans Day.
