Miranda Adkins | So Salem

Jim Fender looks on as Kemper Wills and Noah Lindamood raise the American flag at South Salem Elementary.

On a chilly morning, bundled pre-kindergardeners through fifth-graders filed out of South Salem Elementary to greet a Roanoke Valley D.A.V. Honor Guard for a Veterans Day ceremony. They raised the flag with the help of students Kemper Wills and Noah Lindamood to "To the Colors," played by James Fox, a trumpeter for the Pride of Salem.

D.A.V. Honor Guard member K.P. Waterman addressed the school and tried to explain what it means to serve in the armed forces. "One of the best explanations -- someone who wrote a blank check to the United States of America, up to, and including, their life," he said. Other members of the D.A.V. Honor Guard included Wayne Owens, John Inge, Jim Fender, Greg Wilcock.

After the school recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the freshly risen flag, the kindergarten classes broke out into song, not planned in the ceremony. "My Country 'Tis of Thee," they sang after the pledge, as is their morning routine. Chloe Austin, a South Salem alum and eighth-grader from Andrew Lewis, sang the national anthem, and music teacher Susan Bowles "sang" along with sign language.

South Salem Elementary has also been collecting candy for deployed troops since Halloween, a program called "Sweet Treats for Soldiers." They'll send some to Iraq and Afghanistan, with leftovers going to veterans who can have sugar at the VA and then for local heroes like the police and fire departments. It started with guidance counselor Mandy Dallace's brother, Chief Chris Morris, being deployed in Iraq. This year, he was able to come by and help distribute American flags that the D.A.V. Honor Guard left for the students.