Locust Valley learns about World War II

The Locust Valley Central School District will not be hosting the Remembrance Bowl, a game meant to commemorate paratroopers who fought to liberate France during World War II, again this year, but it is still keeping the mission on passing the history of those soldiers to the next generation.

In Sept. 2023, Locust Valley High School hosted the first state-side rendition of the football game played between the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France. As part of the event, the district partnered with Patton Legacy Sports and local organization Operation Democracy to bring the game home and write new, age-appropriate curriculums for students from grades pre-K-12. This year, the district continued those curriculums and passed the game onto Cold Spring Harbor High School.

Through the week of Sept. 23, Locust Valley educators continued to build on last year’s lessons with presentations from war re-enactors from France and class activities to help students understand the bravery of the men who liberated Europe.

At the elementary school level, students learned about the meaning behind symbols such as the poppy flower. Christine Arthur and Margaret McDermott’s fifth grade class at Bayville Intermediate School created parachutes and attached them to action figures to try to simulate the airborne units that played a huge role in the liberation of Europe.

Middle and high schoolers attended assemblies during which Helen Patton of the Patton Foundation, Jeff Wells of the veteran organization Walk Among Heroes, Cathy Souref of Operation Democracy and French representative of the group Friends of the American Veterans screened “The Sixth of June,” and answered questions about the struggles Allied troops encountered on D-Day.

High school art students met and discussed their storytelling projects with Korean artist Jeongmin Kim, who attended the 80th D-Day commemoration in France and created illustrations for Walk Among Heroes. Film students met with filmmaker Doug Stapleton and writer Jeff Stoffer, who created the book and film “The Mother of Normandy: The Story of Simone Renaud.”