Locust Valley Schools Commemorate WW2 Remembrance

By Niall Fitzgerald

Locust Valley's schools celebrated Homecoming week with the Remembrance Bowl and by teaching about World War II to students from Kindergarten to 12th grade.

In 1944, shortly after the D-day invasion of Europe, American and Allied soldiers liberated Locust Valley’s sister city, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, in France.

The Remembrance Bowl is a flag football game played between the 101st and 82nd Airborne units in Sainte-Mere-Eglise to honor the Allied soldiers who fought to liberate Europe. And the game has now come to Locust Valley through a partnership between Locust Valley’s own Operation Democracy and the Patton Legacy Sports organization.

At Bayville Primary School, Margaret Marchand, the President of the Locust Valley School Board, taught Ms. Shishkoff’s first graders about D-day and US paratroopers. The kids got their own paratrooper toys to test out on the playground.

On the same afternoon over at Locust Valley Intermediate, third, fourth and fifth grade students learned about the evolution of the United States flag, flag code and how to fold a flag during an assembly.

The next day, Locust Valley Middle School students filled the auditorium to watch a documentary called “Mother of Normandy” about the family of Sainte-Mere-Eglise’s mayor Simone Renaud.

After the film, students participated in a question and answer session with director Doug Stebleton and the author of the book of the same name, Jeff Stoffer. Maurice Renaud, the son of Simone, came from France to participate in the week’s events and spoke to students after the film, as well.