Fayette Christian School held its annual Veterans Day program on Wednesday after the school was closed Tuesday due to inclement weather and the event was postponed.
Starting off the program, principal Larry Fitch welcomed the crowd of veterans and students before leading the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. Pastor Tony Garren then took to the podium to pray over the event and the veterans in attendance before the third grade students recited the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution.
Ed Helt, American Legion Post 25 Americanism chairman, was then introduced and he took time to recognize the various veterans in attendance before talking about the annual Americanism and Government test. The Americanism and Government test is given annually to students in grades 10 through 12 and consists of 50 true/false, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank questions as well as one 300 word essay. Topics covered by the test include: the United States flag, the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and state, county, city, township, village and school district governments in Ohio.
This year, Fayette Christian School scored exceptionally well on the test, which was attributed to the love of country by students, teachers and administrators as well as the work done by history teacher Sharon Miller. The 10th grade winners were Emily Barker and Zander Ivey, the junior winners were Cherokee Lofino and Lilly B. Russi (there was no junior boy participant so both winners were selected from the girls), and the senior winners were Grace Sheeter and Christopher Tooill. Additionally, Barker, Lofino, Sheeter and Tooill were named the county winners for their grades. Finally, for the first time in the history of giving the test in Fayette County, Helt said two students tied for the highest score, Barker and Tooill.
All winners received a $50 gift card for McDonald’s courtesy of Nick Epifano, owner and operator of McDonald’s of Fayette County. In addition to the $50, the county winners received an additional $25 on their gift cards and since there was a tie, Epifano decided to give both highest scorers an additional $25 on their cards.
Following the winners being announced, the speech class read as a group “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, Fitch recognized the various branches of the military, the Ton Chimes Choir performed “America the Beautiful,” and those in attendance sang “My Country Tis of Thee.”
“‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,’” Fitch read from Psalm 33: 12-22 (ESV) in closing.“‘The people whom he has chosen as his heritage.’ We appreciate the veterans being here today even after we had to cancel (Tuesday). We greatly appreciate the service and we don’t want to forget to give appropriate recognition to those who fought for our freedoms.”
Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy.
