Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Gold Scout honors alumni veterans
EAST NOTTINGHAM » Kassidy England is on a mission to find and honor all the veterans that went to Oxford High School.
The 2017 graduate of the school chose the task as her Girl Scout Gold project. The Gold is the highest Girl Scout rank equivalent to the Boy Scout Eagle rank.
It was a daunting task, as she found out during her senior year, inasmuch as Oxford had individuals dead and alive that had joined the military branches ever since World War II.
Still, she persisted, and by last spring she had found the names of 345 veterans. She held a ceremony and placed their names on two plaques.
But that was not the end of it.
“It materialized into more than an 80-hour project. The path that these selfless men and women have taken should be recognized,” England told her audience at the ceremony in the school’s auditorium on Saturday.
And so, after the first wave of veterans and recognition, England continued and found another 110. They were named and recognized at this second ceremony by former Principal Ken Woodward, many of them present in the auditorium.
England said she first tracked them down on social media, asking around and making contacts based on information she received from others.
But then things reversed, and veterans started contacting her after she set up a website and the project became known.
At Saturday’s event, a color guard of Lancaster County Young Marines brought in the flags and were followed by a greeting from High School Principal James Canaday. He told the group that even though Kassidy had graduated from Oxford, the tradition of recognizing veterans would continue.
PTO President Chrissy Peabody took her place at the dais and told the audience that the PTO was
proud to have partnered with England in the project.
“We are a family community here in Oxford,” she said. “It is amazing how many names have been read.”
She added that she is the mother of a Marine. “Without moms, these (Christmas and birthday) packages would not be coming,” she said.
Peabody reiterated what Canaday said: That the ceremony would continue.
She also urged everyone to make sure all the veteran alumni get in touch and are recognized.
Also at the Alumni Veterans Ceremony were representatives of the Coatesville Veterans Hospital, who provided special pins for all Vietnam War and Vietnam War-era veterans. They also gave out more pins to anyone who wanted them in recognition of the 50 year anniversary of the Vietnam War.