LEXINGTON – Monday morning Lexington Middle School students showed off their newest project at the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles.
The project, which is part of LMS’s Alternative Education program, is a memorial to the 17 astronauts who lost their lives on missions.
“The alternative education class is a class that is designed for kids that have had difficulty being successful in other classrooms,” said LMS teacher Judy Biehl. “Our program is divided into three separate, but equal sections.”
Biehl says the sections are academic work, entrepreneurship and community service, which is the part of the class where the display was made.
The project is a lighted star dotted with 17 flags to honor each one of the astronausts. Above the display are five badges, which represent five first in space exploration. Among the firsts are the first space walk brought by the Gemini 4 mission and the STS-131 mission that put Clayton Anderson, the first Nebraskan in space.
It was Anderson’s Veterans Day trip to Lexington that inspired the alternative education class’s yearly community service project.
“We were honored to have Clayton Anderson for our speaker at our Veteran’s Day program,” said Biehl. “Although Clayton is not a veteran he is important to the safety of our country with what he does. We were trying to figure out how to make a visit from a non-veteran be appropriate to Veteran’s Day.”
Students say through the community service project they learned all about the history NASA and space exploration.
“We learned about history,” said Joana Gomez, a student in the class. “We learned about astronauts and that they died for a good reason, “
One of the class’s previous projects finally found its way back to the Heartland Museum.
Corporal Bear, which is a teddy bear made from recycled military uniforms, returned from a 14-month stay in Iraq.
The bear is one of many in the museum that wears a uniform representing each war Americans have fought in. They were the class project of the 2009-2010 class.
“Each of the bears is made from a recycle uniform that has actually been in service,” said Beihl. “The uniforms that represent the wars are current to that war. Corporal Bear was made from a uniform that belonged to Dave Magnuson, whose wife is from Lexington.”
The bear traveled with 188th Forward Support Company of Colorado. After his deployment to Iraq, the bear traveled to four veterans home throughout Nebraska until finally coming to it’s permanent home at the Heartland Museum.
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