LAKEHURST – After a widespread mold problem last summer, Lakehurst Elementary School needed new ceilings, new supplies, and a whole lot more. Now that it’s been open for a few months, there was one thing that was glaringly missing.
Staff members had bought some flags from hardware stores, but they were the tiny ones you might see on lawns. They didn’t have proper flags.
Board of Education member Deborah Pease mentioned the problem to her aunt and uncle, who happened to be active in the American Legion. They decided that the little flags just wouldn’t do.
“That’s just not right,” her aunt Darlene Scheiderman said. When the rest of her post, American Legion Post 129 in Toms River, found out about it, they were happy to donate the flags.
Her and her husband Bob brought the flags to the school one morning. The kids in a young class were very excited, shouting “It’s so big!” and “Oh my God it’s, like, touching the ceiling!”
A sixth grader shouted “We get our own flag!” while another said quietly “Thank you for your service.”
And it was fitting that some of them were installed near HVAC vents, so the flags looked like they were blowing in the wind.
It’s more than just ceremony. Being this close to the base, more than 20 percent of the students at the school have parents working for the military, Superintendent Loren Fuhring said.
“We’re super appreciative of the donation. Now our classrooms are complete,” she said.
