St. Francis High School hosted its annual Veterans Day assembly on Tuesday, November 11th 2025. Veteran Mike Starr has been the rock in our program, starting it off campus at the American Legion.

“We used to have the program over at the American Legion” Said Starr, And then I said the High School students should be more involved.” 

Starr has always been passionate about celebrating and supporting our Veterans due to his history in our military, having served 4 years and 9 months in the Air Force and in the Army National Guard of North Dakota for over twenty years.

The ceremony is to help spread awareness to the students, staff and community about Veterans’ sacrifices and great achievements. 

“We always had the band and the choir, yet not the student body,” said Starr, “and so we contacted the highschool and the middle school to say, can we do the Veterans Day program at this building?”

Originally, St. Francis sent their band and choirs to the American Legion to perform at Starr’s Veterans Day assembly, but Starr felt the students needed to experience it.

“The schools and administration was wide open. They support us in every which way.”

Starr faced no resistance from the schools to his idea, leading to the integration of both the middle and high school into this Veterans Day program.

“So years ago, we moved it from the American Legion to the highschool and middle school.”

Starr wanted to highlight the importance of Veterans Day to the students, to teach them who the veterans are, how we can support our veterans, and just to say thank you.

“Because in the military, when something goes wrong at home, we’re always gone and the spouse left behind is stuck fixing everything” Said Starr, “And that’s a challenge in the military, because you’re gone so much.”

Starr wanted to highlight the challenges Veterans have faced for our country. To show the students of their sacrifices, and try to teach our students to appreciate what they do. 

“Some people join the guard or the military because they’re patriotic, they want to serve, their family served, or they serve because the GI bill used for college.”

Starr recognizes many reasons for joining the military, and he never compares these reasons, showing his respect for all Veterans, no matter the reason they joined.

Reporters asked “What do you hope students take away from the program?”

Starr replied “The biggest thing is that you understand who are the Veterans…how can we support the Veterans and just to say thank you when you see a Veteran.”

To this Principal Doug Austin replied “My biggest thing is that they have an understanding of what it’s like and means to be a Veteran, and the sacrifices they made for our country…and having a real good understanding of how much our military does on a regular basis.”

Reporters asked the important question “How can we support Veterans in our own communities?”

Jon Trost, who served 41 years in the Minnesota Army National Guard and is also a volunteer in the High Schools metal shop said “It’s very simple, if you see somebody that you know that is a veteran just say, hey thanks for serving. It can be that simple.”

When asked what Veterans Day means to him, Trost responded with “ It’s a chance to say thank you to those who have served our nation, and help guard the freedoms that we are so accustomed to.”