Forestville Elementary School Odyssey of the Mind Students
Honor the WWII Veterans with their Fundraising Efforts
Last May a flame was lit for a very special undertaking when the students at Forestville Elementary attended a showing of “Honor Flight” a documentary based on the lives of 4 WWII Wisconsin veterans and their trip to see the memorial built in their honor. Their 5th grade teacher Lisa Goglio-Zarczynski hosted the event at the AMC Tysons Corner Theater to raise awareness of the arrival of these flights into nearby Dulles.
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Their initial goal was $500 to send one veteran, however through sno cone sales at school events and youth sport camps along with an online donation site http://www.gofundme.com/33ltco they have raised $1,500 for three veterans and hope to raise enough money for a fourth.
On Saturday, September 21st the team had spread the word to other youth organizations, middle and high schools in the area to come together to greet Stars & Stripes Honor Flight with 112 veterans from Wisconsin. Thanks to their efforts and the additional 85 people, it was announced that this was the largest welcome since flight arrivals began in 2008.
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Postcards with the WWII Memorial were personalized with sentiments of thanks and appreciation by the team and their 6th grade classmates. These were distributed to each veteran upon their arrival deeply touching the recipients.
The team is already planning for the next arrival on November 2nd at Dulles by gathering more personalized postcards to honor the heroes upon their welcome. Additionally they will continue to fundraise along with spreading the word about the Welcome to Washington in hopes of matching or exceeding their recent attendance at Dulles.
Forestville PTA President Jamie Finch is requesting for postcards to be made available to the students during their annual Thanksgiving luncheon for writing messages to the veterans. These will be distributed in the spring when Honor Flights will resume their travel.
For more information about Honor Flight check their website at http://www.honorflight.org/
For more information about Forestville Elementary check their website at http://www.fcps.edu/ForestvilleES/
Contact for this article is Lisa Goglio-Zarczynski at lgogliozarcz@fcps.edu
