Fenwick students share day with veterans

First-time event features breakfast, clap out through halls by student body.
Fenwick High School's Cooper Mulligan delivers the "Missing Man" prayer during the school's veterans breakfast and ceremony. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Fenwick High School's Cooper Mulligan delivers the "Missing Man" prayer during the school's veterans breakfast and ceremony. SUBMITTED PHOTO

FRANKLIN TWP. — Fenwick High School’s Veterans Breakfast filled the bellies of veterans and active duty military and left them with a warm feeling in their hearts.

The first-year event was the idea of Vanessa Mosley, director of advancement at Fenwick. She said her husband and father are veterans and she modeled the Fenwick breakfast after one her husband attended.

“He would randomly bring it up,” Mosley said Friday after the breakfast. “We wanted to do something special.”

Veterans and active duty military were greeted by balloons Friday morning at Fenwick High School. RICK McCRABB

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Fenwick students were allowed to invite a veteran or active duty military member to the breakfast Friday morning. The event included a performance from the combined Middletown police and fire honor guard, a keynote address from Craig McKee, an Air Force veteran and anchor at WCPO-TV 9 in Cincinnati, and a surprise clap out as students lined the hallways and waved flags as the attendees walked out of the building.

Mosley said some of the veterans “broke down in tears.”

The veterans breakfast was “a day to reflect on the sacrifices they have made to protect our freedom, and a day for all of us to express our deep gratitude for their service,” according to Mosley.

Elizabeth Vossler, 48, who served in the Air National Guard for 25 years before retiring in 2019, was appreciative of the efforts of the Fenwick students, including two of her sons, John, a sophomore, and Eli, a freshman.

“They totally exceeded what I thought,” she said. “We all felt really blessed.”

She called the clap out “really awesome” and “a great surprise.”

Izzy Barbetta is a senior at Fenwick High School.

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Izzy Barbetta, 17, a Fenwick senior, brought her uncle, Mike Beals, retired U.S. Army, to the breakfast. She enjoyed talking to her uncle about his military experience and it was important for the students to share how much they appreciate the veterans.

Colin Guyler is a senior at Fenwick.

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Colin Guyler, 17, a senior, called the veterans event “heartwarming” because it provided a time to “spark those conversations” between the students and the veterans.

“We all learned so much,” he said.


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