Keri Stromski's "fantastic, fabulous first graders" with their Garfield Langhorn books.

"September 10th was Garfield Langhorn's birthday. Garfield Langhorn is a hero," read the "fabulous, fantastic" first grade students in Keri Stromski's class at the Roanoke Avenue School.

"He was in the Army and he gave his life for his friends," these little students read from the tiny books they had made about Garfield Langhorn's life.

The board proclaimed September 10th "Garfield Langhorn Day". PFC Garfield Langhorn, a 1967 graduate of RHS who heroically gave his life for his fellow soldiers by covering a grenade with his body during the Vietnam War, was given his own day to be remembered by the students in the district last year by the RCSD Board of Education.

As part of their memorial to PFC Langhorn, Mrs. Stomski's class listened to Mrs. Stromski read the book they had made. Then they discussed what she had read and talked about what it means to be a hero. (Next, they posed for this picture.) And, finally, they paired up and read it to their partners.

Because of the day's close proximity to September 11th, it is a time when both events and the discussion of what it means to be a hero often come together.

As part of a memorial to the heroes of 9-11, the 9-11 Memorial Quilt, made by students in the district, was once again hung in the cafeteria at the high school.

            
This RHS student points to the 9-11 quilt made by district students shortly after 9-11. It was hung again this year in the high school cafeteria as a memorial to the heroes of 9-11.

Related links: Garfield Langhorn Day, Garfield Langhorn Memorial Garden at Pulaski, 9-11 Quilt 9-11-03