REMINDER: Dale Street School Veteran's Plaque to be Unveiled on May 27

The replacement of a at the started with a simple observation from Nancy Kelly-Lavin and turned into more than a year of fundraising by students and Medfield volunteers.

Those efforts will culminate in a rededication ceremony and unveiling on May 27 outside the Dale Street School as part of the school's Memorial Day celebrations and assembly, according to Medfield Superintendent of Schools, Bob Maguire.

"It really is going to be a nice event," Maguire said. "It’s coming together as a nice plan."

The plan, according to Maguire, is to follow-up a school-wide assembly celebrating Memorial Day with a rededication ceremony and unveiling outside the school under the pillars. 

"There is going to be at 9 a.m. a school-wide assembly," Maguire said. "All of the living veterans that we know of that are on the plaque have been invited to come to that ceremony as well as students of Dale that have veterans in their family have historically been invited."

The one-hour assembly will recognize all of the veterans and highlight the observance of the rededication of the plaque, according to Maguire and is not open to the public. "It is invite only," he said.  At the conclusion of the assembly, town officials will gather under the pillars for the ceremony. 

"At about 10 a.m. we will go out and do our rededication," Maguire said. "The students are going to stay inside and we will [provide them] with some sort of video feed so they can still participate in the viewing of the unveiling. We have invited Congressman Lynch, our state reps, the school committee, the selectmen and a number of other town officials have been invited." 

Residents are also encouraged to gather outside of Dale Street School and participate in the unveiling. 

"There will be brief ceremony outside to formally rededicate this plaque in honor of these heroes of Medfield in a way that I think is a great small town way to do something this important," Maguire said. "It’s a great event. The whole town will be invited for the outdoor ceremony. Hopefully it will be a nice day and a nice crowd."

When Kelly-Lavin first noticed the veteran's plaque outside the Dale Street School gymnasium, she knew it had to be replaced  because it had fallen into "disrepair with names missing letters" and "gold stars that had fallen off," she said. Her father, Bill Kelly, of is one of the names on the plaque and when she told him about its condition, they came up with an idea to raise money to replace it – accepting donations at its semi-annual Sidewalk Sale. 

Not long after that fundraiser, a small group of volunteers came together to see this project through and replace the plaque. Those volunteers were: Kelly-Lavin, Maguire, town historian Richard DeSorgher, town veterans Tony Centore and Lee Tredway and Town Veterans Agent Ron Griffin. also donated $1,000 to the efforts. 

The cost to replace the plaque was $4,000 and Maguire said the committee and students from Dale Street School raised more than enough money for the 30 by 48 inch bronze plaque to replace the current memorial, which has been at the school since the 1940s. 

"The nice thing about it is in addition to the fundraising that the committee did, the students at Dale Street fundraised," Maguire said. "The [original] plaque was fundraised by doing dances and other activities by students during that time. It's a nice tie-in to the idea of the students at the original Dale Street School, which was Medfield High School at the time and the current Dale Street School students also did some fundraising for this will hopefully give a nice connection to understanding the meaning of this." 

Maguire said the plaque has been updated from the original version to include the names of three Merchant Marines, who are now considered veterans.

"It has been updated to reflect the fact that since the time those students erected [the plaque], Merchant Marine for World War II service had been recognized by Congress as veterans," Maguire said. "We located three Merchant Marine that have been added to the list."

There are 153 names on the veteran's plaque. Maguire said he hopes this project will be the beginning to other military memorials being added to the other schools in town. 

"The long-term idea of this is to do something similar on the outside of each of the [school] buildings," said Maguire. "So there would be something that recognizes on each of the schools students that went off in service. At the current middle school, which was the former high school, could be a Vietnam [memorial]. There are a number of students from when I was the principal [at the high school] that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finding a way to make a real connection to service and sacrifice and hopefully reinforcing with students the importance of honoring people that really have given us freedoms through their sacrifice."