Legacy Project brings together students and veterans
MMA Innovation Award winner - award presented on Jan. 12, 2002
Leominster’s Legacy Project brings together high school students and war veterans in order to make the veterans’ service and the students’ education more meaningful. Through the Legacy Project, the city’s veterans and Leominster High School have forged a stronger connection with the community.
The project is a partnership between the city, the school department, and veterans’ services. It runs each March through Nov. 11, concluding with veterans and students marching together in the city’s Veterans Day Parade.
Each year the project focuses on the veterans of a particular war. The first Legacy Project in 1999 focused on veterans of World War II. Veterans who left high school to serve in the war were presented with high school diplomas in a special ceremony at City Hall, an event that had a powerful effect on students and veterans alike. The students realized that they had reached the age that many of the veterans were when they went to war.
The 2000 Legacy Project focused on veterans of the Korean War, and in 2001 veterans of the Vietnam War were the concentration.
Innovation award judges
The 2002 MMA Innovation Award judges were Peter Abair, associate director of the Department of Housing and Community Development and director of the department’s Division of Municipal Development, and William August, a partner in the law firm Epstein & August, specializing in representing municipalities in cable television and related telecommunications matters.
Written by John Ouellette
