JANESVILLE — What began as a classroom lesson on the realities of military service has transformed into a community-wide fundraising effort at Kennedy Elementary School, where fifth-grade students are selling handmade ornaments to support local veterans in need.
The project was sparked by Chelsea Brown, an art teacher at Kennedy Elementary and the wife of an Army veteran who served 10 years and four tours of duty.
After leading a Veterans Day program for the past 18 years, Brown found that this year’s fifth-grade class was particularly inquisitive about the rigors of military life. Students asked pointed questions about everything from the strictness of basic training to the weight of following orders during wartime…