On Saturday, September 24, four Weedsport students were fortunate to participate in Honor Flight Syracuse’s Mission 17. Mission 17 was a chartered flight that took 79 veterans to Washington, D.C. for the day to see the monuments and to observe the changing of the guard ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Honor Flight Syracuse is an all-volunteer organization that takes veterans to Washington for a day, and then provides a grand welcome home ceremony upon their return to Syracuse.

This year, Weedsport students in 12th grade Participation in Government, 11th grade U.S. History, and 10th grade Global Studies II classes all wrote letters to veterans thanking them for their service. For each mission flight, up to four Weedsport students are nominated to be “standby” volunteers, so in the event a veteran is unable to go at the last moment, the students fill that seat on the plane.  Students are selected on the basis of community service, volunteerism, and patriotism. Students must also be outgoing, engaging and fully vaccinated.

Nominated students report to the airport at 5 a.m. and, if spots on the flight open, they fly to Washington with the veterans. Weedsport students have written letters for every Honor Flight mission since the very first mission, 10 year ago. Sometimes there are no openings, and none of our nominated students fly. On September 24, all four Weedsport students were fortunate enough to go to Washington. It was an amazing day filled with great memories the students and the veterans will never forget.

The four nominated students were seniors Lily Komarisky, Sam Holden, and Jacob Blaylock, and Junior Colleen O’Neil.