News
ENLARGE
Joe Hink and Robert Schlotthauer used to work together at Meadow Gold in Greeley back in the 1960s. Despite living so close together with Hink residing in Windsor and Schlotthauer in Severance, the two men hadn’t seen one another for more than 40 years.
Leave it to the Windsor Middle School student body to change all that.
Hink and Schlotthauer crossed paths with one another inside the auditorium at Windsor High School on Friday afternoon. The students raised $3,000 during the school year to help send three war veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the National World War II Memorial and other war memorials during the northern Colorado Honor Flight trip May 1-2.
Hink, 87, is a World War II veteran who worked as an aviation machinist mate in the U.S. Army from June 1942 until December 1945. Schlotthauer, 79, served in the Korean War for the U.S. Army from January 1953 until December 1954.
“At first I didn’t think I would want to go, but now I’m glad I signed up for it,” Hink said.
As for the students raising the money to help send him to D.C., Hink said: “Oh, golly. They went above and beyond their quota. They were only going to get $1,000 at first, and then they came up with $3,000. They really worked at it.”
Schlotthauer, who grew up on a farm north of Windsor, said raising the money gave the students something to think about.
“This is the only way they learn it. I think it’s great giving these guys a chance to go back,” Schlotthauer said. “I didn’t see any combat or anything, but half of my company that I took training with got killed over there before they got home.”
The third veteran who will be going on the Honor Flight trip is Windsor resident Norman Oliphant, 86, a U.S. Navy veteran who served from 1943 until the WWII ended in 1945. Oliphant fought in the Battle of Saipan, the Battle of Tinian and the Battle of Iwo Jima.
“I think that’s extremely special of them,” said Oliphant of the students’ fundraising efforts. “I’ve been asked to go on this trip several times, and I did not try to go on it. My thoughts were I felt a little guilty about the children raising money for us until it was explained to me by a couple of veterans that they’re trying to honor us and that is what’s important. I think it’s really fantastic that the young people do this. It’s hard to accept something because when we did it it was just something that you did, and everybody did it and everybody was expected to do it. The appreciation we’re getting today is kind of outstanding. It’s important for the history of it and for the children to know what happened.”
WMS principal Doug Englert said the fundraising efforts were a great reflection on the students and the community.
“They just did a great job of really supporting this,” Englert said. “That’s kind of what Windsor’s all about anyway. They really support the really cool programs, and this is one of them. Having the veterans in gives it a little bit more attachment and they can actually see what their benefits of all their labor went to.”
WMS adopted a school-wide theme “Honoring Our Veterans” for the 2010-11 school year where teachers presented lessons built around the theme and the hallways and bulletin boards were filled with reminders of the veterans. Fundraisers such as a WWII 1940s-style swing dance in November, a coin war between the classes and sponsors helped raise the money. It takes about $1,000 to send one veteran.
Callie Colberg, a sixth- and eighth-grade English teacher at WMS who also headed up the Honor Flight fundraisers, said it was special to see the students so excited about raising the money for the cause.
“Three thousand dollars for the Honor Flight is so amazing. We were hoping to raise $1,000, and we weren’t even sure we could do that,” Colberg said. “The kids rallied amazingly. We weren’t sure how they’d respond. When we started talking about veterans in their own lives and current veterans and when they figured out how much this meant to these men and women to be able to go back to the memorials, it was just incredible. We’re are so proud of our kiddos.”
Eighth-grader Lauren Falconburg, 14, said raising the money was fun.
“I have a really good history in the military for my family, and it was really fun to help them and meet all the veterans,” Lauren said. “It’s really special to know we’re doing this for them because they might not have been able to see it without the money we raised for them.”
Fellow eighth-grader Josh Villa, 14, said it’s an honor for the students to see the veterans go to D.C. and to show them that young kids care about what they did for their country.
“For us to recognize that they were so committed to giving freedom to our country should mean a lot to us because it gave us the freedom to have our rights,” Josh said.
Stan Cass, 77, who is in charge of heading up the northern Colorado Honor Flights, said 79 WWII veterans and 41 Korean War veterans will make the trip in May. It will be the sixth Honor Flight since the program began in September 2008. Cass said it’s the first time veterans from the Korean War will be on the Honor Flight trip.
Cass said the money raised by the middle school is the most raised by students that age, and the third most in northern Colorado behind a high school in Larimer County that raised $5,000 and another high school in Greeley that raised a little less than that.
“You kind of get a bad feeling about young people once in a while. You don’t think they care about what’s happened in the past, the history, the patriotism,” Cass said. “But when kids of this age step forward and get so excited about honoring our old warriors and raise that kind of money, it rejuvenates you. No doubt about it.”
Leave it to the Windsor Middle School student body to change all that.
Hink and Schlotthauer crossed paths with one another inside the auditorium at Windsor High School on Friday afternoon. The students raised $3,000 during the school year to help send three war veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the National World War II Memorial and other war memorials during the northern Colorado Honor Flight trip May 1-2.
Hink, 87, is a World War II veteran who worked as an aviation machinist mate in the U.S. Army from June 1942 until December 1945. Schlotthauer, 79, served in the Korean War for the U.S. Army from January 1953 until December 1954.
“At first I didn’t think I would want to go, but now I’m glad I signed up for it,” Hink said.
As for the students raising the money to help send him to D.C., Hink said: “Oh, golly. They went above and beyond their quota. They were only going to get $1,000 at first, and then they came up with $3,000. They really worked at it.”
Schlotthauer, who grew up on a farm north of Windsor, said raising the money gave the students something to think about.
“This is the only way they learn it. I think it’s great giving these guys a chance to go back,” Schlotthauer said. “I didn’t see any combat or anything, but half of my company that I took training with got killed over there before they got home.”
The third veteran who will be going on the Honor Flight trip is Windsor resident Norman Oliphant, 86, a U.S. Navy veteran who served from 1943 until the WWII ended in 1945. Oliphant fought in the Battle of Saipan, the Battle of Tinian and the Battle of Iwo Jima.
“I think that’s extremely special of them,” said Oliphant of the students’ fundraising efforts. “I’ve been asked to go on this trip several times, and I did not try to go on it. My thoughts were I felt a little guilty about the children raising money for us until it was explained to me by a couple of veterans that they’re trying to honor us and that is what’s important. I think it’s really fantastic that the young people do this. It’s hard to accept something because when we did it it was just something that you did, and everybody did it and everybody was expected to do it. The appreciation we’re getting today is kind of outstanding. It’s important for the history of it and for the children to know what happened.”
WMS principal Doug Englert said the fundraising efforts were a great reflection on the students and the community.
“They just did a great job of really supporting this,” Englert said. “That’s kind of what Windsor’s all about anyway. They really support the really cool programs, and this is one of them. Having the veterans in gives it a little bit more attachment and they can actually see what their benefits of all their labor went to.”
WMS adopted a school-wide theme “Honoring Our Veterans” for the 2010-11 school year where teachers presented lessons built around the theme and the hallways and bulletin boards were filled with reminders of the veterans. Fundraisers such as a WWII 1940s-style swing dance in November, a coin war between the classes and sponsors helped raise the money. It takes about $1,000 to send one veteran.
Callie Colberg, a sixth- and eighth-grade English teacher at WMS who also headed up the Honor Flight fundraisers, said it was special to see the students so excited about raising the money for the cause.
“Three thousand dollars for the Honor Flight is so amazing. We were hoping to raise $1,000, and we weren’t even sure we could do that,” Colberg said. “The kids rallied amazingly. We weren’t sure how they’d respond. When we started talking about veterans in their own lives and current veterans and when they figured out how much this meant to these men and women to be able to go back to the memorials, it was just incredible. We’re are so proud of our kiddos.”
Eighth-grader Lauren Falconburg, 14, said raising the money was fun.
“I have a really good history in the military for my family, and it was really fun to help them and meet all the veterans,” Lauren said. “It’s really special to know we’re doing this for them because they might not have been able to see it without the money we raised for them.”
Fellow eighth-grader Josh Villa, 14, said it’s an honor for the students to see the veterans go to D.C. and to show them that young kids care about what they did for their country.
“For us to recognize that they were so committed to giving freedom to our country should mean a lot to us because it gave us the freedom to have our rights,” Josh said.
Stan Cass, 77, who is in charge of heading up the northern Colorado Honor Flights, said 79 WWII veterans and 41 Korean War veterans will make the trip in May. It will be the sixth Honor Flight since the program began in September 2008. Cass said it’s the first time veterans from the Korean War will be on the Honor Flight trip.
Cass said the money raised by the middle school is the most raised by students that age, and the third most in northern Colorado behind a high school in Larimer County that raised $5,000 and another high school in Greeley that raised a little less than that.
“You kind of get a bad feeling about young people once in a while. You don’t think they care about what’s happened in the past, the history, the patriotism,” Cass said. “But when kids of this age step forward and get so excited about honoring our old warriors and raise that kind of money, it rejuvenates you. No doubt about it.”
