Zavalla Elementary School students honor veterans with music, gifts

ZAVALLA, Texas (KTRE) - Students at Zavalla Elementary School honored more than 30 veterans during the school’s Veterans Day program on Monday.

Students sang to the veterans, read speeches on what Veteran’s Day means to them, and showered them with heartfelt gifts to thank them for their service and sacrifice.

“I feel proud of them, yea I’m proud to be a vet but these kids that’s coming up to recognize what we did in the military, what sacrifices we made, we left our homes and families and they realize that now and I thank God for that,” said Don McDonald.

McDonald served in the U.S. Navy for four years after graduating high school.

He was one of many veterans that were honored by Zavalla elementary students during their veteran’s day program.

“I think this day is important because your veterans fought for you and they didn’t have to and they could have just stayed at home and watched television and stuff, but instead they chose to fight for us,” said 5th grader, Bailey Campbell.

5th grader Justin Davis wrote a speech on what Veteran’s Day means, which he said was his favorite part of the program to help the younger students learn.

“For the little kids that were in the front row they didn’t really know what Veterans’ Day is at all, so I helped teach them and so the teachers didn’t have to have so much weight,” said Davis.

For McDonald, he said seeing first hand that the students are learning about the military and the sacrifices they made makes him appreciate being a veteran and is thankful for the honor.

“They’re learning more about World I, World War II, Vietnam which is my era, Desert Storm, all of the wars we have been in and it’s a future they know more about what we went through than battle,” said McDonald.

The students also presented veterans with hand-made heartfelt gifts.

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