Pictures of RBHS family members serving in the military flashed across the screen at the Thanksgiving assembly Nov. 4 as the words from Toby Keith’s “American Soldier” sang out, “I will always do my duty, no matter what the price.” Students were asked to empty their pockets of loose change to send two soldiers to their memorial through the Central Missouri Honor Flight.
RBHS students, along with the rest of Columbia Public Schools, answered the call and raised more than $21,000, sending two planes full of veterans to see their World War II memorial in Washington, DC. The Young Republicans club and Powderpuff football worked together to help make RBHS’s contributions more than $2,200.
Young Republicans “didn’t go into it thinking we were going to get a ton of money just because it was just on the spot kind of things,” senior Sammi Bell said. But “we raised so much money at the assembly. It was awesome just to walk around and see that people weren’t just throwing pennies. There were people throwing five dollar bills, 10 dollar bills, 20 dollar bills into the bucket, and that was way more than we were asking for.”
Superintendent of schools Dr. Chris Belcher, who headed CPS’s involvement with the Honor Flight program, expected to send only two veterans, but the funds collected will help to send up to 70 veterans to the memorial. Bell was both surprised and proud of this success.
“It’s so awesome that, like, this isn’t about Columbia. This isn’t about Missouri. This isn’t about Rock Bridge,” Bell said. We “just jumped at the act of being publicly generous.”
Bell believes the reason the cause was so easy to raise money for was every student could relate to the cause. Bell’s own father is a veteran.
“I hope my dad … will have this opportunity too,” Bell said. “I mean, he hasn’t been to his memorial. I think that it’s so cool that we can do this for these guys.”
The pictures of RBHS kids’ family members faded and the change hit the buckets. The lines “Oh, and I don’t want to die for you, but if dying’s asked of me, I’ll bear that cross with an honor, ’cause freedom don’t come free. I’m an American soldier,” resounded loudly, inspiring Bell and other students to give more generously than anyone expected.
By Maria Kalaitzandonakes