Veteran’s Breakfast Altered to Show Thanks, Support

Student Council’s annual Veteran’s Breakfast was altered to a drive through pick up instead of the traditional breakfast to show their thanks and support for Veterans at HUHS and around the community.

In previous years, HUHS and Student Council showed thanks to veterans around the community. The Veteran’s breakfast previously consisted of a formal breakfast, a presentation including speakers, and performances by the band and choir.

However, due to the risk of COVID, the thank you ceremony had to be changed to a drive through pick up.

“It was pretty much straightforward to what we needed to do,” Senior Jessa Bea said. “The pick up was actually a lot easier to plan than the in person breakfast. There weren't as many moving parts as usual.”

Bea has been on Student Council and is currently the special events chair and was one of the main coordinators for this event. Veterans Breakfast is important to Bea, as she has multiple family members involved in the army.

The veteran’s breakfast overall made her feel “great” as it was a way for her to show thanks to veterans and the community.

Hartford community member and veteran Otto Quantt said, “I think it is a very nice gesture for the student council to [recognize and share thanks] for the veterans.”

Even though it had to be changed to accommodate the older veterans, and to lower the amount of people entering the building, community veterans and veterans a part of the HUHS staff are grateful.

“It was a nice touch to have [veterans] recognized still in the age of COVID,” special education teacher Russ Kumbier said. “[The breakfast] changed this year because a lot of the guys that come are older and it would be very difficult to have a traditional veterans breakfast [because of] social distancing.”

Kumbier was a tanker and a part of a training group that trained troops in case of war. Kumbier served for four years.

Tech. ed. teacher Mark Murphy was a Crew Chief on F-117 and F-16 aircraft for 23 years.

“I think [Student Council] did good for what they were allowed to do and it was nice to be acknowledged,” Murphy said. “It is nice to see the school's support for the veterans, not just myself but everybody that has served.”

In the future, Bea hopes to spread the word about the breakfast to more veterans around the community. Because the planning period was shortened by three weeks, word about the breakfast was not able to be spread as much as Bea hoped.

“We did the best we could with what we have but next year we will definitely be looking into other options to make veterans in the area aware of our breakfast,” Bea said.

With all of the changes, HUHS was still able show their appreciation for veterans around the community and at the school.

“We had a great turn out for our first run and I could see that the people who attended were very grateful that we still did this,” Bea said.