While Memorial Day weekend typically invokes thoughts of barbecues and the unofficial start of summer fun, the Hillsboro R-3 School District will recognize the holiday with a 24-hour vigil honoring prisoners of war and those missing in action.
The vigil will begin at 6 a.m. Friday, May 28, at Hillsboro Intermediate School, 10478 Business 21, and last until 6 a.m. Saturday, May 29, with students, faculty and staff participating.
The public is also invited to take part, too.
Scott Readnour, principal of Hillsboro Intermediate, said the vigil will be reverent and informative.
“We’ll be out by Business 21 here in Hillsboro to get the word out to let people know about the POWs and MIAs and that there’s still more than 80,000 missing in action American troops,” he said. “We’ll be holding flags, holding candles, and we’ll have different pieces of information out for (residents) as they’re driving past … so (we can) educate them on the cause.”
Megan Mahue, a fifth-grade teacher at Hillsboro Intermediate who worked with Readnour to organize the event, said the vigil is intended to raise awareness about the issue and teach students about the sacrifices troops have made.
“The No. 1 focus is bringing awareness and setting the standard for what schools should be doing to recognize them. I feel like prisoners of war and those who are still missing are kind of forgotten,” she said.
Mahue said she and Readnour discussed what the school could do to get the community involved while also bringing attention to the cause and came up with the idea for the vigil.
“Mr. Readnour and I were talking about what we could do that was big, that would be a big eye opener, and we said a vigil,” she said. “We wanted student groups out there, families out there, community groups out there, something big to really open people’s eyes, and what better time to do it than to kick off Memorial Day weekend?
“In the evening and overnight, if anyone wants to join us, they’re more than welcome to come. If someone wants to donate money, they can drive through and donate money during the school day or at any time,” he said.
All donations will go to the POW/MIA Museum under development at Jefferson Barracks.
In October 2020, Hillsboro became the first school district in the nation to be named a POW/MIA Campus by the museum, and the district donated $500 in November to help the museum, Readnour said.
“The building they have at Jefferson Barracks is an older building that needed a lot of repair before they can open up. So it just helps get the museum up and running and any costs to fix anything they needed to get fixed,” he said.
The district expects to donate more money to the museum from the proceeds of a T-shirt fundraiser it recently held, and those attending the vigil are encouraged to wear them at the event.
Readnour said the shirts serve a dual purpose of supporting the museum while providing information about the struggles surrounding POW/MIAs.
The same T-shirts will also be available for $10 on the day of the vigil with all proceeds going to the museum.
Readnour said it is an honor for the district to hold the event and to keep the service members who perished from being forgotten.
“It is our way of honoring those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country,” he said. “It’s a huge honor for us to be able to do this to honor those individuals who loved our country and loved us enough to provide us the freedoms we have.”
To learn more about the Jefferson Barracks POW/MIA Museum, visit jbpow-mia.org, and for more information about the vigil, call 314-789-0030.
Heartland Heroes Tour
to appear at vigil, assembly
Heartland Heroes Tour, a group of traveling motorcyclists formed in March who, according to its Facebook page, ride to “pay respects to our nation’s heroes and their families,” is scheduled to arrive at Hillsboro Intermediate at approximately 11 a.m. Friday during the vigil.
They will ride through the campus, stop for a lunch provided by the school and have a short assembly.
The group’s ride and appearance at the school is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity birthed from the cancellation of a larger cross-country motorcycle tour called Run for the Wall due to COVID-19, said Mary Pittman, co-founder of Heartland Heroes Tour.
Run for the Wall is an annual ride made up of three routes departing from California and converging at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., with approximately 1,800 participants, including many veterans.
Heartland Heroes Tour, which has many riders from Run for the Wall, began a ride May 19 in Fontana, Calif., and after visiting the Hillsboro school, will conclude its 10-day nationwide journey in at Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial in Perryville, a sister wall to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Pittman said she appreciates the Hillsboro School District’s hospitality.
“To be invited to a school that’s never seen us before and doesn’t know our other organizations is a massive blessing and compliment for us. They’ve already secured for us a law enforcement escort as we come in,” she said. “That school is really supporting us in a way that we kind of are only normally used to with our other organization, so to have the community, or school or group reach out to us and offer that means everything to us.”
One of the riders joining Heartland Heroes’ journey is slated to speak at the Hillsboro assembly – Shannon Spake, whose father, Lt. Cmdr. Dennis Pike, was lost on March 23, 1972, in Laos, which Pittman said illustrates how important the POW/MIA issue is.
“It’s very impactful that for these kids, this isn’t just something that they’re reading about that happened 50 years ago … they’re going to be able to touch a lady who lost her dad when this lady was a little kid,” Pittman said.
Heartland Heroes’ mission is to call for a counting of all POW/MIAs and to raise awareness about health issues that affect troops and their families, like PTSD, the veteran suicide rate and military sexual trauma, Pittman said.
If the community wishes to support the ride, there are many ways to contribute and they don’t have to be expensive, Pittman said.
“It doesn’t take a lot to support us. It doesn’t have to be a $1,000 check to help us with gas. Someone coming in with $20 in water and Gatorade means the world to us,” she said, adding that one of their favorite means of support is people lining up along their route with flags and waving them through. “There is the opportunity for people to support us without spending a dime.”
Pittman said many people don’t realize there are American troops from the Vietnam War who have never been found or brought home and there needs to be answers about what happened to them.
“Their families deserve that closure, and if these military members are deceased by now, they deserve to be brought home on home soil and rest on home soil. If we send them, we need to bring them home,” she said.