Mount Rose Academy honored with the Purple Star Award

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - Head downstairs at the Mount Rose Academy, there are military displays on the walls that can’t be missed. There are the flags of the 6 branches of the military. Then this wall display of men and women who have or who are currently serving in the military.

It was an 8th grade Leadership Class project where students learned not only about our nation’s military, but for some they discovered someone in their family had served in the military.

“My grandfather fought in the Viet Nam War,” says Billie Peek, with the leadership class. “It was cool to see how our family was connected in that way through family members,” says Cassidy Garman also with the 8th grade leadership class.

8th Grader Quinn Oster says he discovered his great grandfather served in World War II. “Then my dad showed me we had his uniform. We had like this song book, his badge. All the stuff,” he says.

An assembly would follow with the leadership class educating their classmates about the various branches of the military:

“Sometimes they were too engaged cause they would start clapping to the anthems and it would override the anthem,” says Madeline Grimm, with the leadership class. “We had to tell them to calm down,” she says.

The display went up so families could post their loved ones who are or were in the military along with their stories.

The class also worked with Blue Star moms collecting items for care packages to be delivered to active military men and women.

“It would be amazing to help out their family and others as well,” says Landon Zeller as to why all students pitched in.

His fellow classmate Luca Kornze Bobzien added, “I felt like it was very cool for people to learn about their family’s history that they didn’t before, and also like Landon said, knowing they are helping others.”

Such a project has led to a letter from Nevada’s State Superintendent of Schools, letting Mt. Rose Academy know it will be the only school in Northern Nevada to be honored with the Purple Star Award this year.

The award is given to schools who show a concerted effort in creating an atmosphere which is friendly to military families.

“We wouldn’t be able to have a democracy if it wasn’t for them,” says Sawyer Sala, also with the leadership class.

The school will be officially honored on November 28, 2022 with the Purple Star award.

After that leadership says their next project will be to collect funds for kids with cancer.

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