CLASSROOM PLUS VETERANS DAY ASSEMBLY
Join the GFWC Shorewood Woman’s Club Celebrate 80 years with these active, award winning, civic-minded women sponsoring monthly programs: • Annual Wearable Art Show May 7 • Rummage Sale October 1 • Monthly book group meets first Wednesday at Boswell’s at 10 am • SHS and UWM annual scholarships • Hunger Task Force, STEM/STEAM, Immigration, Urban Ecology Center, Operation Smile, CARE • Sojourner Family Peace Center, SEED, Meta House, UN, VA, Girl Scouts, Hefter, State Library, Plein Air Support
Join the fun & camaraderie! Call Janet Nortrom (964-3764) Kay Berzsenyi (988-2143) Nancie Baker (961-2623)
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gfwcwishorewoodwomansclub.com
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Jan Zehren speaks at the Atwater Veterans Day program.
Shorewood Schools Remember Our Veterans By Katelin Watson
For the last two decades, the Shorewood School District has engaged in a patriotic tradition unlike any other: the annual celebration and recognition of Veterans Day. While many schools throughout the country acknowledge Veterans Day each year, few take it to the level of Shorewood. It all started just over 19 years ago when Shorewood teachers Jan Zehren and Rich Rosen and former Lake Bluff Principal Kirk Juffer had a discussion over an informational packet they received from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
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“Veterans Day was always important to me because my dad was a World War II, Korean War and Vietnam vet with the Air Force,” Zehren says. “I knew that it was crucial to keep that military history alive and teach our youth the reasons we have the freedoms we have today. I thought, ‘What better way to help students understand than to have veterans share their stories?’ ” In this way, the Shorewood Veterans Day assembly was born. Zehren asked her father, Allan E.V. Scholz, to be the very first keynote speaker at Lake Bluff ’s inaugural Veterans Day assembly, and he agreed. In addition to featuring a keynote speaker, the assembly also gave students the opportunity to learn the history of Veterans Day, sing the national anthem and honor local veterans who attended the event. The assembly was a big success. “My father hadn’t even really shared his story with our own family before, so I heard it for the first time when the students did,” Zehren says. Fueled with a new excitement, Zehren advocated for making the assembly an annual occurrence and volunteered to coordinate it. Thanks in large part to Zehren’s hard work, the assembly gained momentum over the years and spread to both Atwater and Shorewood Intermediate School (SIS). Every year, the assemblies incorporate a service project and host a local veteran keynote speaker.
“The first year, we held a movie night and raised $1,000, which was donated to the World War II National Memorial Fund,” Zehren says. “Another year, we sold patriotic bracelets and donated the profits to the United Service Organization. We’ve also done care package drives for Operation Gratitude. You name it, we’ve done it.”