Honoring veterans, the Souderton Interact Club and Support Our Troops Club hosted a brunch at the high school on November 1 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For Air Force veteran Tom Doyle, he feels gratitude towards the volunteers for making the event possible.
“We appreciate the length all of you are going to remember us,” Doyle said. “We do appreciate that you’re taking time out on a Saturday morning for you to give us a meal [and] spend some time with our fellow veterans.”
According to Interact Club advisor Alison Kircher, planning the event is exceedingly strenuous but highly uplifting.
“I think just speaking to the veterans, they’re just so joyful, happy to be here, happy to be together, that just makes all the planning worth it,” Kircher said.
As for Vietnam veteran Dennis Hunsberger, he hopes students take advantage of the new opportunities he couldn’t obtain or practice when he was their age.
“Make sure [students] look into what they want to do, because now they have choices where I didn’t,” Hunsberger said, “because we were in a draft time, we were going to get drafted one way or the other.”
According to Hunsberger, the admiration from the event fills deep-rooted self-doubt from the post period.
“When we came back from Vietnam, nobody really said thank you. I got one card from somebody, [they] thanked me for my service. Other than that, we were kind of forgotten about,” Hunsberger said.
Senior Sophie Dubois hopes that the attendees enjoy themselves and choose to come to the annual brunch again in the years to come.
“A lot of veterans come back, and they like talking with us,” Dubois said. “There was this one guy, and he just would not stop talking, which we appreciated because it was nice to hear so much. But I think they like it. I hope they like it.”
Senior Shivahn Becht finds the most pleasure in novel encounters.
“I like getting new experiences. That’s a big part of it [enjoyment],” Becht said.
Dubois said she learned to “take everything with a grain of salt,” and not to judge someone based on their experiences.
Kircher feels that students should share others’ accounts to raise as much awareness as possible.
“The important message of sharing your story, but also for students, understanding that it’s live history,” Kircher said. “As [people] get older, and pass on, their stories die with them. So it’s important for us to learn their stories and to share.”
According to Becht, the veterans appreciated the event.
“They always leave and give an excessive amount [of thank yous] as they’re leaving,” Becht said. “They always have a smile on their face. They just like being able to talk.”
For Dubois, she finds the conversations the most engrossing.
“You get to mingle with the veterans and talk to them about what they did,” Dubois said. “It’s really cool to see how they spent their time and where they were, who they were.”
According to Kircher, veterans can commemorate throughout the entire month for gratification.
“It’s a highlight they get to do [celebrate]. Throughout November, different organizations honor veterans,” Kircher said, “so it was great that we did it on November 1, because it kind of kicked off the month for them to get to do different events.”