Submitted by Marylee Vennemeyer, Mason, Ohio

Idea posted June 24, 2003

Hello friends at Plank Road:

I just wanted to let you know that my school is doing Teresa's song "The Lights of Freedom" (from Music K-8, Vol. 13, No. 3. Also available as a Singles Reproducible Kit.) for our spring concert. The concert will be tied in with a district-wide campaign to raise money for a Veteran's memorial that will be erected in our community this summer.

Instead of reciting the names of the 50 states during the interlude segments, we are going to say the names of veterans in our community. Some are in active duty and some are retired, but all grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles of our students and teachers! It will be an extremely moving and poignant piece, especially in light of what our country is going through!

We also have planned for a group of students to perform choreography with streamers in place of the candle idea (it will still be daylight at that time in May). You can imagine how powerful it will be.

I just wanted to let you know that Teresa's song has really inspired and motivated our school and students!

Post-concert notes:

We acknowledged the Veterans in the audience, and presented them with small red, white, and blue pins at the end of the concert. Some kids in the school created classroom quilts that contain the names of veterans in that kids' family, the wars in which they were inVol.ved, and the military branch they served with. These quilts are now on display in a selected hallway of the building: "The Wall of the Brave."