Lowville 10th graders honor veterans with banners

LOWVILLE, N.Y. (WWNY) - Learning is taking place in person, at home, online and even on the streets of Lowville.

Banners honoring veterans are popping up on North State Street.

“There’s a lot of veterans in our community and we just wanted to show appreciation for them,” said Anna Exford.

Exford and Mackenzie Ples are 10th-graders at Lowville Academy. They’ve been bringing the banner project to life for 2 years.

“We hope it will open people’s eyes to see how much veterans mean to us and how much they’ve done for us,” said Ples.

But it hasn’t been easy.

“In order to do this project, these young ladies had to go to a village board meeting, a school board meeting; they had to go to the veterans organization in town and give a presentation,” said Suzanne Schwarting, project advisor.

“It helped with our public speaking a lot. At first we were really nervous, but we kinda got used to it. It definitely helped,” Exford and Ples said.

They even submitted the project to a national competition.

“We had to send in a video and we did a portfolio and we received a silver medal,” said Ples.

And they secured a grant from the Lowville American Legion.

“We went to the legion to explain to them our ideas and what we wanted to do and to ask them for help with fundraisers and they decided to give us $2,000,” said Ples.

The girls say some of their best lessons have been learned outside of the classroom and any young person can make a difference in their community.

“There’s so much you can do too, not just this. There’s so many opportunities and different things you can do too,” said Ples.

If you want to donate to the cause or have a banner made, find the application on the school’s website by typing “Lowville Hometown Heroes” in the search bar.

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