Senior planned final Veterans Day ceremony at Vets High School

Posted 11/12/15

It was an especially meaningful Veterans Day ceremony for Vets High students Tuesday as one of their own, senior Stephanie Racca, planned the observance which will be the last for the school as a …

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Senior planned final Veterans Day ceremony at Vets High School

PLANNING IT ALL: Vets senior Stephanie Racca planned the Veterans High School ceremony for her senior project. She is pictured here as students and veterans started to assemble in front of the school.

Warwick Beacon photos

HER INSPIRATION: Stephanie Racca said her grandfather, John Cabral, who served in the Pacific during World War II was an inspiration to her desire to run the school’s Veterans Day observance as her senior project. Seated with Cabral is Superintendent of Schools Philip Thornton.

PLAYING TAPS: Vets student Gianni Iannotta played taps as Hannah Ellis placed a wreath at the plaque and flagpole in the school courtyard.

Posted Thursday, November 12, 2015 1:06 pm

It was an especially meaningful Veterans Day ceremony for Vets High students Tuesday as one of their own, senior Stephanie Racca, planned the observance which will be the last for the school as a high school. The school is to be re-purposed as a junior high school with the closing of Aldrich and Gorton Junior High Schools.

Racca made the ceremony her senior project and organized the event from the invitation of veterans and guests to the lineup of speakers. The day was saved as Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, whose arrival was delayed, appeared, as if on cue, to talk about the importance of voting and how veterans have fought to preserve that right. Mayor Scott Avedisian remarked on the significance of the school and how it and Veterans Park at the school has become a “gathering place for all veterans.”

He said, “Our duty is not to forget their [veterans] sacrifice.”

The ceremony included the placement of a wreath, donated for the event by Father Robert Marciano, by student Hannah Ellis. Ellis has participated in the school’s Veterans Day ceremony for the past four years.