By DEB BENTLY
Staff Writer
For the second year, students in the NRHEG ProStart program will be preparing and serving a meal following the Memorial Day ceremony taking place in the high school gym. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 27; it will feature New Richland resident Gordy Loverink, a Vietnam Veteran, as a speaker. NRHEG students Halle Schultz and Will Tuttle will be reading “In Flanders Fields” and the Gettysburg address.
The ceremony is free and open to the public; veterans are especially invited to be present, in uniform if they wish.
The New Richland American Legion organization is sponsoring the meal, which will consist of pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, a pickle spear, cupcakes, lemonade and coffee. Cost for the lunch will be $10; serving will continue until about 1 p.m. or until the food is gone. Organizer Georgia Dinneen says the intent of offering a meal on site is to create an opportunity for those in attendance to visit, share experiences, and simply enjoy one another's company.
Wendy Garcia-Gutierrez, who was born and spent part of her childhood in Mexico, is among the students who helped serve the meal last year and who will be working there again. Wendy mentions the event was meaningful to her because she recognizes that people in the United States have more freedoms and opportunities. She said she was proud to be serving soldiers who helped create and defend those freedoms.
She also appreciated how polite and grateful everyone was as she helped serve the meal and took care of various tasks.
NRHEG Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Kelly Delacruz, the ProStart advisor, explains that all 18 ProStart participants will help with the preparation of food–including baking and frosting the cupcakes, during their regular class times; a group of eight students has signed up to decorate the school’s “upper” cafeteria for the event, set up the serving line and dish up the plates, and then to clean up afterward. Helping that day will be Pierce Anderson, Erik Nelson, Gavin Sletten, Wendy and Adrianna Gutierrez-Chesley, Madison Corkill and Zoe Wilson.