News-Info-Alerts

Re: High School POW-MIA Project Gets A+

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: May 06, 2003

"Waterford High Rewarded For Work On MIA Case
By JUDY BENSON Day Staff Writer

Hartford— Test scores aren't the only way to measure the success of a student's education.

By a different gauge — the undertaking of a unique, noteworthy community project — Waterford High School and six other schools around the state have distinguished themselves. For those projects they earned special recognition Tuesday from Gov. John G. Rowland and state Education Commissioner Theodore S. Sergi.

Waterford earned its Challenge to Educational Citizenship Award for the efforts of a civics class taught by Brett Arnold to persuade the government to renew its search for the remains of Capt. Arnold Holm. Holm, an Air Force helicopter pilot shot down in Vietnam in 1972, was a Waterford High School graduate who captained the school's football team.

The Waterford High project has become well known outside the local community, attracting television cameras, newspaper reporters, U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, and U.S. Department of Defense officials to the school since last fall. About 40 students got involved at various levels, but the impact went much farther, according to Principal Donald Macrino, who attended the state Capitol ceremony.

“It had a profound impact on the whole school, even alumni and teachers,” he said. “The poignant tragic coincidence of Ahn (1999 Waterford High graduate Kemaphoom Chanawongse) becoming MIA at the same time made this very real for this generation.”

Marine Cpl. Chanawongse was killed during a battle in Iraq in March.

A recovery team is currently in Vietnam searching the area where Holm's helicopter is believed to have crashed. Some evidence of a crash has been found.

The other schools receiving the awards were: Christian Heritage School in Trumbull; Notre Dame Catholic High in Fairfield; Hamden High; Sports Science Academy in Hartford; Whisconier Middle School in Brookfield; and Northwestern Regional in Winsted.

The six projects were chosen from more than 200 submitted for consideration.

“It's very contagious when students get involved in charitable efforts,” said Rowland, after shaking hands and posing for photos. “We hope you'll continue to be role models in helping people understand that there's more to life than listening to music, hanging out with your friends and going to school.”

The kind words and handshakes came during a ceremony at The Capitol Tuesday. It was a special effort by Rowland and Sergi to bring attention to these good deeds and offer some respite from the growing national emphasis on standardized test scores as the sole judge of educational merit.

The educational citizenship awards have been given out annually since 1995, but previously in understated fashion without a public display. Members of the State Student Advisory Council on Education, a panel of high school youth that meets with Rowland and Sergi, selected the seven winners.

“Even when they have other things going on, these students are staying focused on the needs of others,” said Sergi.

Students at one school raised $47,500 for a homeless shelter and soup kitchen by hosting a fund-raising banquet instead of their annual class party. At another, more than 25 percent of the student body got involved in homebuilding and repair for poor families in Appalachia. Special Olympics benefited from thousands of hours of volunteer service from another group of students, while homeless and orphaned children in Nicaragua received more than 600 boxes of personal hygiene supplies, clothing and teddy bears collected at a middle school.

At the other schools recognized, students raised thousands of dollars through a dance, karaoke and talent show for Habitat for Humanity, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and children and adults with terminal illnesses.

In Waterford, Jessica Chappell, 17, emerged as one of the student leaders of the campaign on behalf of Holm. What began as a class assignment to write letters to government officials, she said, turned into much more.

“We're trying to raise awareness to let people know that MIAs are still out there, and we need to bring them back,” said Chappell, after receiving a plaque from Rowland commemorating the award. She presented Rowland and Sergi with MIA bracelets engraved with Holm's name.

Students wrote to Simmons, Defense Department officials, talk show hosts and local newspapers. They talked with former classmates of Holm and members of his family and located T.E. Martin, a retired Air Force officer now living in Texas who had served with Holm. He provided new information about the possible location of the crash. The information was passed on to Defense Department officials to use in their new search.

“My dad was in the Air Force,” Chappell said, “so this just hit home. I would never be able to go through 30 years of not having someone there that I love.”

Officials from the Defense Department's POW/Missing Persons Office came to town to talk with the class and local residents. The school also hosted a gathering in honor of local Vietnam veterans that the students helped put together.

Chappell and 18-year-old Nicholas Porter both said they came to appreciate how important it is for families that every effort be made to bring back the remains of their loved ones. They and other students have reached out to educate the public by creating a show for public access television about the Holm case.

“When you talk to people in the community, they're really impressed that high school students care so much,” Porter said.

“It was a big eye-opener for me,” Chappell said. “This really showed me that when students have something important to say, people will listen. I've always had a lot of ideas, but never thought people would listen to me because I'm only 17.” 

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