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Wayne Knop didn’t really need the extra incentive.

As a Louisburg resident, veteran and post commander of Louisburg American Legion Post 250, he would have attended the Veterans Day ceremony at Louisburg Middle School anyway.

But throw in the fact that his granddaughter would be singing at the ceremony? Well, that helped make things truly special.

“She was in the fifth grade choir, and she had informed me that that was gonna happen and that she would be singing,” Knop said. “And I dang sure wanted to be there.”
In his desire to attend, Knop was hardly alone. Approximately 40 local veterans, men and women from every branch of the United States Armed Forces, gathered alongside more than 400 students on Wednesday, for the middle school’s first independent Veterans Day ceremony.

Tradition dictates that regional services rotate between Louisburg, Osawatomie and Paola every year, which gave LMS principal Brian Biermann an idea.
In the years that Louisburg is not the home site, he thought, why not host an additional ceremony at the school?

“What really got me going is I got some information,” Biermann said. “I got some stuff on Veterans Day and I shared that with our three social studies teachers.”
The idea rapidly expanded to include the middle school band and choir, and in approximately a week the staff, students and teachers had a quality program ready to go.
The immediate response was extremely positive, Biermann said, as several of the veterans in attendance expressed to him that their ceremony surpassed even the county wide one in Paola earlier that same day.

“Everyone has been very thankful, very appreciative, and (commended them on a) job well done,” he noted.

To veterans like Knop, the day itself obviously bears a special significance, and few may know that Veterans Day actually has strong ties to the state of Kansas.

Veterans Day was originally celebrated as Armistice Day, following a decree from President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, to commemorate the end of World War I. It wasn’t until 19 years later, however, in 1938 that Nov. 11 was recognized as a legal holiday. In 1953, a small businessman in Emporia, Kan. kick-started a movement to modify Armistice Day to honor all veterans, and the idea stuck. On May 26, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower — a native Kansan himself — signed the change into law, and Nov. 11 has been celebrated as Veterans Day ever since.

Because today’s children have grown up in a time of military conflict, Knop noted, they often have a greater awareness of the holiday and what it represents. It’s a shift in public perception that he hopes makes a lasting impact.

“Since 9/11 everything has changed,” he said. “It’s just instilled in them more now to honor (veterans), and they have a deeper feeling for what it means.”

“I think they need to know the sacrifices that men and women are making, and that it’s real,” Biermann added. “Men and women are losing their lives every day.”

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