“I was completely shocked,” said Holly Blackwell the eighth grade English, Language and Arts teacher from the Vicksburg Scholastic Academy. On Thursday afternoon Vicksburg Tea Party board member Malcolm Allred, Mayor George Flaggs Jr., former Mississippi congressional candidate Bill Marcy recognized Blackwell and her students at the Vicksburg Junior High School auditorium Thursday afternoon.
“I salute her and recognize her,” said Flaggs after the assembly. Blackwell was honored for helping her class host a breakfast for veterans and those still serving in the armed forces.
Betty Stout, an active member of the Vicksburg tea Party, hosted the assembly.
Stout recognized Blackwell in a Veterans Day article about the veterans breakfast. Stout ran a daycare in her house 37 years ago and recognized Blackwell as one of the children she used to care for.
Blackwell who had not seen Stout in 30 years seemed overjoyed when she realized who Stout was. The friends held each other close as Stout proudly spoke of Blackwell and the Scholastic Academy.
The idea for the veterans breakfast came when Blackwell asked her students to do research on what it meant to be a veteran and some of the things veterans deal with after war and life in the military.
After doing the research for their papers Blackwell’s students asked if they would be allowed to pay tribute to the veterans and military personnel living in Vicksburg. The breakfast was held at the Scholastic Academy on Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11.
During the assembly Blackwell received a certificate and a folded flag as appreciation for her work. Blackwell was adamant about letting everyone who attended the assembly know that her students deserved all the credit for the breakfast.
Near the end of the assembly Marcy and Allred passed out flags and shook hands with the teachers and students in attendance.
“I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,” said Blackwell after the assembly.