Jaxen, Hadley, and Kiersten Knobbe.

Students, residents, and business owners waved flags and signs, and fire trucks cruised around Guthrie Center as the community came together to thank local veterans Wednesday.

While an in-person event was not held at Guthrie Center Elementary and Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center High School due to COVID-19, the schools reached out to the Guthrie Center Fire Department and local veterans to hold a procession through town. About 15 veterans’ vehicles were signified with balloons as several fire trucks escorted them Wednesday morning to the elementary and high school buildings and down State Street, where students and community members waved and said ‘thank you’ to those who have served.

Elementary Principal Diane Flanery shares why COVID-19 didn’t stop them from celebrating Veterans Day, “Well our veterans are a very important part of our community, so even with COVID we didn’t want the opportunity to go by without showing them some kind of appreciation. And I want to publicly thank the fire department. I asked them for a truck in the front and a truck in the back and wow, they really showed up today and that was really a lot of fun for us.”

Flanery also thanks Ron Byer with the Guthrie Center American Legion for helping orchestrate the event, as well as the sixth grade student council who made red, white, and blue streamers for the students to wave.