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Brooks will honor veterans with parade, picnic Nov. 11

Students at Brooks Elementary School are preparing to honor the men and women who have served in our nation’s armed forces with a parade and patriotic picnic on Veteran’s Day, Thursday, Nov. 11.

The celebration will mark the fourth year for the picnic and third for the parade, which will include approximately 50 veterans and their families.

Third-graders at Brooks personally hand wrote invitations to local veterans asking them to join the school in honoring their service to the nation. Each veteran will receive a pin and will attend a reception and assembly prior to the parade.

During the assembly, students will present songs and skits about what it means to be a veteran. A slide show featuring photos of veterans, in some cases family members of the Brooks community, will be shown accompanying the song “American Tears” sung by the fifth grade. The assembly will begin at 8:30 a.m. with the parade immediately following.

Brooks Mayor Bobby Butler will serve as the grand marshal of the parade. The veterans will wind their way from the school through downtown Brooks in convertibles while students and teachers march along side of them pulling floats and waving banners.

The day’s festivities will wrap up with a picnic in Brooks Park beginning at 5:30 p.m. with performances by various dance groups and musical ensembles. A candle lighting ceremony and singing of “God Bless America,” led by Mayor Butler, is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Veteran’s Day parade and picnic have turned into a tradition for Brooks Elementary. It all started when former school principal Harry Sweatman, a veteran himself having served one tour of duty in Vietnam, wanted to do something to honor the community’s veterans.

In 2000, the school organized the first community picnic. It was such a success that the school added the parade in 2001. Now both have turned into time-honored traditions for Brooks’ students and the community.