The middle school students at Jefferson-Morgan had a very special visitor, Tom Shumaker, on Thursday, November 8th.

Tom Shumaker, the commander of the Jefferson American Legion Post 954, spent seven class periods talking to the seventh and eighth graders about veterans. He served in the military and even spent some time working in the coal industry.

His annual lecture has been taking place since 2015 when middle school history teacher Rob Ardeno reached out to the Pennsylvania American Legion about their essay contests. Since his reaching out they kept in touch about different projects for the students and one being having an annual lecture with the students.

Each year, Shumaker talks about the branches of the military, the American flag, what it means to be a veteran, and his experience in the Army. Since his starting lecture he began to add in Jefferson-Morgans wall of honor. The wall of honor is a joint effort by Jefferson-Morgan School District and the American Legion to honor the JM Alumni who served. Since the start of the wall with just three pictures it now holds 250 pictures of past students!