Our school has been accepted for the Purple Star Award by North Carolina, meaning that we have pushed to help military families and allow for better integration into our school as they travel around the country for deployment.
SAP Counselor Beth Fearon and Registrar Kenia Colon played vital roles in earning this award, as they have built a website solely for the support of military families.
“It means a lot to me. Purple Star is about supporting military families and children, and that’s what I was: a military kid. My grandfather was a career Army officer, my father was a career Army officer and I grew up moving around a lot, so I know what it’s like to be the new kid a lot. Moving schools so often, I missed some instructions and had to make new friends every time. I just think it’s really important for our school to be cognizant of that and help support the transition in any way we can,” said Fearon.
At FVHS, we have a total of 200-300 military connected families. Whether it be the national guard or retired veterans, the population of these students makes up a significant portion. Thus, it was important to make contributions to these families, so those who felt disconnected from the school could be included wherever they feel fit.
“Mrs. Colon and I developed the website and added some things we thought would be good for military families, a transition list, a checklist so that they know what documents they need to be able to enroll at the school or leave the school, and there are resources on the website for tutoring,” Fearon said.
Both Colon and Fearon have children serving in the military, one in the Army and the other in the Marines, which made providing support for the school an especially meaningful effort for them.
“I am super proud that Mrs. Fearon and I were able to apply for it and create a webpage dedicated to military families and that the people at the Purple Star Program noticed how much work we put into it and that they awarded us. Our children both graduated from Fuquay, and I know we have some Fuquay teachers that are in the military or veteran. A lot of our teachers’ spouses are too, so I feel very proud to do that for our community and our families,” said Colon.
For the future of military family support, our school is workshopping ideas to get clubs and school organizations to help out and make an event where students and visitors can buy bracelets for donations to fund organizations or send letters to our troops.
