GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — A group of Grand Haven High School 2022 graduates were able to unveil a project Wednesday that started in a class they took as seniors.
“The rotunda is a focal point for us at Grand Haven High School,” Principal Tracy Wilson said. “As the principal, I am thrilled to be able to have the students who graduated a year ago come back and finish this project.”
Brian Williams teaches the class, which is called “Pay it Forward,” and offered only to seniors.
“This literally started from nothing and then we have our final project today [Wednesday],” Mr. Williams said. “Very proud to be able to see this come to fruition.”
During the first phase of the class, students visit nonprofits and talk with people who are either marginalized or have had a tough time navigating life.
“One of the people we talked to during the class was a veteran and we all have family members that are veterans. We had a lot of people in our class that were going into the service, so we thought that would be an awesome, awesome way to pay it forward and a really good project to do,” Bryce Wert, a GHHS graduate, said.
The next phase gives students the opportunity to build something organic— a project that sometimes includes raising money and awareness.
“When this group came down and said, ‘we want to do something for those peers of ours that have chose to serve our country,’ and I said, ‘well, you know there was a group in 2020 that tried to get something started and when COVID hit, everything came to a halt,’ and I said, ‘their idea was to do some kind of a wall,’” Principal Wilson explained.
The group of students in the 2022 Pay it Forward class talked with veterans, fundraised and established a vision for a Veteran Honor wall at Grand Haven High School.
The wall honors students who graduated from GHHS and chose the military.
“I’m in awe that these kids had the thought to do this. They did the work and research to get names,” Principal Wilson said. “We try to do things to give back as a full building and help our, all of our kids understand what it means to serve your country, so I think that as families see this, and if they have kids who are serving or have served, it’s gonna be really important to them to be able to get their son or daughter’s name up on the wall.”
The official unveiling of the Veteran Honor Wall was held at the Grand Haven High School Rotunda at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“We worked so hard at this and just to see it come together and actually look really good, it’s a really good feeling,” Wert said. “I’m just really happy that it all worked out. A lot of hard work went into it and we’re all thrilled that it ended up as good as it did.”
“I feel happy inside. It makes my heart warm to finally be done with this and honor [those] who have fought for our country, especially people who have graduated in this building,” Sydnie Yonker, another GHHS graduate, added.
