Just about the same time many Gilroyans were staking out a spot
along 10th Street to enjoy the local Memorial Day parade, eight
Gilroy High School students marched down Constitution Avenue in
Washington, D.C. and past the White House to the cheers of more
than 250,000 people.
Just about the same time many Gilroyans were staking out a spot along 10th Street to enjoy the local Memorial Day parade, eight Gilroy High School students marched down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. and past the White House to the cheers of more than 250,000 people.
The high school was named Stories of Service School of the Year – a recognition of their ambitious undertaking to document 26 local World War II veterans and survivors. It was the largest project taken on by any one school in the history of Stories of Service – a campaign run by a Silicon Valley nonprofit that mobilizes young people nationwide to produce short digital films about war veterans – and earned students an invitation to march in the Memorial Day parade in the nation’s capitol.
“It was so exciting this time because this last trip gave our filmmakers a chance to see how important their work is,” said World History teacher Darren Yafai, who ran the Stories of Service program at GHS and who traveled to New York City and Washington, D.C. in 2008 to speak about the program.
The eight GHS students marched in the parade alongside cultural icons like actor and WWII naval officer Ernest Borgnine, Grand Marshal and actor Gary Sinise – who played Lt. Dan in “Forrest Gump” – Major League Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher and WWII veteran Bob Feller, and Edith Shain – a woman whose liplock with a sailor in Times Square on V-J Day was immortalized by LIFE magazine. The students were also joined in spirit by the veterans they profiled, and by the 2-foot tall photographs the students carried of the veterans.
“We were really proud to be there carrying those pictures and representing our veterans,” said student Shawna Weaver.
Many of Yafai’s students only knew Borgnine as the voice of Mermaid Man, a character on the children’s cartoon show “Spongebob Squarepants,” and for his role as Katczinsky in “All Quiet on the Western Front” – an Academy Award-winning film based on a novel depicting the horrors of World War I. But for Yafai, Borgnine was a lifelong hero.
“I wish I could live to 92 and do all the amazing things he’s done,” Yafai said.
As the keynote speaker at several of the ceremonies Yafai and his students attended, Borgnine gave a nod to the GHS group’s achievements, Yafai said.
“Our generation is rapidly disappearing,” Borgnine wrote in the weekend’s program. “Before you know, all of us will be gone … this is why I am so excited to be a part of the Stories of Service program. I’ve made my movies – it’s time for someone to make yours.”
When the students weren’t attending banquets and ceremonies, they were on the go, visiting John F. Kennedy Jr.’s grave, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, and attending a wreath laying ceremony and observing the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“Going gave a lot more perspective on what a big deal this is,” said junior Karalyn Podesta, who carried a photograph of Lawson Sakai, a local member of the decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team and this year’s Grand Marshal in Gilroy’s Memorial Day parade.
While Yafai’s juniors were making the rounds in D.C., a group of his sophomores working on this year’s task of documenting 20 World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans attended the Gilroy Memorial Day opening ceremony at the St. Mary Cemetery to hear Sakai detail his own story. Yafai’s class nominated Sakai to be this year’s Grand Marshal, Yafai said.
Many of Yafai’s students have kept in touch with the veteran they came to know through their Stories of Service project. Junior Alexis Driggs carried veteran Frank Patti’s photograph in the parade and said she planned to call him this weekend to catch up.
The eight students couldn’t have made the cross-country trip without the support of the entire community, Yafai said. The enormity of the project, coupled with his students’ enthusiasm and the support they received, transformed the local Stories of Service effort into a national feat, Yafai said.
“Looking back on it, I just thought this was a cool project that has a lot of value in our curriculum and community,” Yafai said. “We weren’t prepared for such a positive response from the community. I never imagined at the time how this would lead to a bunch of really awesome opportunities for me and my students.”
