APA Honors Veterans Day

(left to right) Kindergarten students MacKenzie Keel and Ellie Cherry help their class plant American flags around a tree on Parrott Academy’s campus.

After speaking to Parrott middle school students, VFW members Eric Cantu, Tab Brown, and Wilson Jones view a student display honoring veterans.

Arendell Parrott Academy honored Veterans Day 2021 with school wide projects, a speaker, recognition of a Patriot, and a series of fine arts performances. On Tuesday, November 9th, classes from first grade to seniors posted veteran-themed displays outside classrooms. 

 Seniors decorated an entire hall of the high school building. Other classes exhibited written profiles of veterans from their own families, special cards or letters to residents of Kinston’s Veterans Home, patriotic collages, and short essays on the traits of a veteran.  

 An interpretive drawing of APA founder Marion A. Parrott includes captions describing his exploits as a paratrooper and POW during WWII. 

A special display in the front lobby highlighted the military career of the school’s founder, Marion A. Parrott. A paratrooper at D-Day, Parrott was later a Nazi prisoner who escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Poland. Aided by the Polish resistance, Parrott eluded re-capture, making his way back to the fighting where he served until the war’s end. At 10:15, Head of School David Moody gathered with junior and senior classes at the school’s flagpole to honor Mr. Parrott as a true “Patriot.”   Parrott’s daughter Jeannette Parrott attended the ceremony. 

Middle school students heard a presentation by local VFW members Eric Cantu, Tab Brown, and Wilson Jones. Beginning at 4 p.m., a “Fall for the Arts” program of student performances included patriotic music.