American Flagpins

By Ken Grimball

   

Seated comfortably in their Home and Careers Class, students at Gelinas Junior High School, in Setauket, were very busy with a special project.  They were using thousands of small red, white and blue beads that were in a large bowl on a table before them.  Next to the bowl, there was a tray of large golden safety pins.  With jestures of content and a few giggles now and then, the Eigth Grade girls were placing the beads carefully on the pins.  This was not being done randomly.  There was a purpose.  They were making creative Flagpins, that could be worn on clothing or placed on the wall or stuck into special place.

The Flagpins were for Veterans, living at the nearby Long Island Veterans Home in nearby Stony Brook. Students in this class reach out to people in their community, who are not often on the front page or often identified at the Shopping Malls. The youngsters appeared to be delighted with their project.  While speaking with them I detected a level of appreciation for the people who had fought so galantly for them in Viet Nam and other conflicts.  

As a Viet Nam era Veteran, I felt quite honored to think that children today had so much feeling and gratitude for these people who faced battles and  who still have scars mentally and physically for being in all sorts of conditions while defending the freedom that we have here in the Good Old U.S.A.

By the time the project is completed, the students would have made Two-hundred-fifty Flagpins that will be given to the Veterans on their well deserved day November 11th.