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How do you know when a child understands the true meaning of Memorial Day?

Alumnus Fred Smalkin can tell you. Smalkin, one of ten alumni veterans who accepted the invitation to McDonogh's Memorial Day ceremony, witnessed this:

"At the end of the ceremony, a teacher brought one lad up to us, a little fellow named Motsko. This lad had been so moved by the whole experience that he had tears streaming down his cheeks. The teacher said he wanted to shake our hands and thank us personally for our service."

"I'll never forget taking his small hand in mine and thanking him for caring so deeply and remembering all those McDonogh boys -- once no different from him -- who served, some of them dying, so that others might live."

Smalkin wanted to give the lower schooler a memento of the day. He found a pair of General's stars on epaulet rank slides in his car. Smalkin sought out the boy and gave him the slides. As Smalkin reports, the hug he received from this child "meant more to me than any medal."

"If only one child comes away form the Memorial Day ceremony each year with the depth of feeling I saw in young Mr. Motsko, all of the work involved will have been richly rewarded."

The McDonogh community gathered around Memorial Court on Thursday, May 26 to remember alumni who died in military service. Two speakers--Headmaster Charlie Britton and Director of Religious Studies, 字符, and Service John Greg--told stories of veterans whose lives had lessons for today's students. Student musicians played strings, handbells, and Taps. Lower schoolers thanked alumni veterans by singing "The Memorial Day Song."

校友 Association president Rob Bavar and a student representative placed a wreath in front of the monument inscribed with the names of those alumni who lost lives in the two world wars.

之后, students and guests visited the 校友 Memorial Field House lobby, where Butch Maisel '72 displayed four tables of WWII equipment.