Thanksgiving

We are rapidly approaching the midway point of the 2013-2014 school year and I can hardly believe that today is the 77th day of instruction! It really does appear that time passes us by in the blink of an eye. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I am very much looking forward to spending the day giving thanks for the many blessings in my life. Like many of you, we will enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal and an afternoon of visiting and watching football. I will cherish the time that I have to spend with my loved ones tomorrow and throughout the entire holiday season. We are very lucky to have the opportunity to live during this time--in this great country.

But when we gather for our Thanksgiving meal and enjoy the season that we are now entering, I would like us all to please remember those that are not able to be with their families. Just a few short weeks ago we held our annual Veteran's Day Assembly, and many of our classrooms completed special projects for our soldiers that are currently deployed around the world. I am very happy and proud of the tradition that Hudson has honoring those who have served and are serving.

After these events have begun to fade into our memories and we move on to the next important event on our calendars it is sometimes easy to fall into complacency and well, kind of forget that we have a lot of folks serving in harms way on our behalf. The top stories on the news typically aren't reports out of Afghanistan or some other hot spot in the world where our soldiers are currently serving. We become busy, getting ready  for the holidays with shopping or preparing Thanksgiving meals. 

I was reminded of this fact just last week when the top story on the evening news was a homecoming celebration for a National Guard unit from Boone returning from deployment. It was a very nice ceremony with a lot of emotion. The story reported that the unit was involved in a very dangerous operation while deployed and that luckily they had very few injuries during the deployment. What a wonderful story, and it certainly made me happy that these Veterans were now home in time to enjoy the holidays with their families.

The second story was a send off ceremony for a National Guard unit out of Ottumwa that was leaving for a deployment. Unfortunately they probably will not be around for the holidays. So tomorrow when you sit down for your Thanksgiving meal, or anytime during this holiday season when you have the chance to gather and celebrate with family and friends I invite you to say a word of thanks to all of our service members who are currently serving in harms way around the world. You can keep track of Iowa deployments right here.

And on behalf of the Hudson Community School District, Happy Thanksgiving!