by Divya Kumar
News Editor
After spending time in a foreign country, seeing a grateful face can make all the difference to a soldier upon returning home. Since the Dallas Fort Worth airport is one of the two airports that provides a “Welcome Home Troops” event, on Monday, Jan. 18, a group of CHS students visited terminal D22 in order to greet returning soldiers.
The event, discovered by CHS senior and Red Cross club president Reihaneh Hajibeigi, began at promptly 8 AM and lasted for roughly an hour. With the help of the CHS Red Cross club, National Honor Society and a few Colleyville Red Cross club members, the “Welcome Home Troops” sector of the DFW airport was relatively packed with ages ranging from wartime veterans to elementary school children.
According to Hajibeigi, information about the Welcome Home Troops event was discovered by the president of the North Hills School Red Cross club, Melissa Adger. After hearing of it, Hajibeigi took action in order to raise awareness about it at CHS.
“I talked to Thao Vu, our Red Cross Representative, and Annie Abraham, the NHS president in order to generate buzz about this,” Hajibeigi said. “I also talked to second graders on Friday at Austin Elementary and had them make ‘Thank You’ and ‘Welcome Home’ cards for us to distribute to the troops.”
Students were asked to arrive early at the airport in order to congregate and be given directions. Most stood behind the lines, as did the other visitors at the airport, while some stood near the door to distribute the student-made cards for the soldiers. Starting at around eight, directions were given to the extremely-full airport as to how to react when the soldiers passed by and appropriate behavior.
“They told us that we weren’t supposed to reach out for them, but it would be okay if a soldier reached out for us,” CHS junior Morgan Stabell said. “I was so surprised that some of them actually did reach out, and were happy to see us – a few even teared up. I didn’t know that being there would have such a big impact.”
Around 245 soldiers landed and passed through the terminal during the morning. While many were coming home, several were catching connecting flights to other areas to truly be going home. After walking by, people had the opportunity to visit with soldiers waiting for connections or taxis to go home. Though the airport was rather packed, there are days when there are few visitors.
“We just happened to be here on a day where many people had the day off,” Hajibeigi said. “But there are occasions when only a handful of people show, and that does a lot to kill the idea of the event.”
Hajibeigi hopes that instead of making this a one-time experience, it can be a school sponsored event happening around once a month as a field trip through the school board. In order to see this thought through, she has enlisted in the help of CHS economics teacher, Donnette Alexander, to help navigate her as to who to talk to in order to finalize the event.
“I think that this is a wonderful project,” Alexander said. “For soldiers, it is sometimes disorienting to be home where normal is different from the normal they’ve been living. Being greeted at the airport can really help make the transition from working to being at home. It can also let them know their sacrifice is appreciated by complete strangers.”
According to Alexander, personal experience gives her insight and an opinion into the event, as well.
“My father was a WWII veteran,” Alexander said. “He recently went to DC for a trip for WWII veterans where strangers clapped for him and approached him to thank him for his service. Tears came to his eyes – and my father never cries – when he talked about the way they were treated. Their gratitude took him completely by surprise.”
Through the work of Alexander and Hajibeigi, a “Welcome Home Troops” district-wide event is the ultimate goal.
“A lot of people want to help with this, but don’t know how,” Hajibeigi said. “All the stress in organizing this is worth it to see people tearing up. I would have no problem planning millions of these days just to see those few minutes of happiness.”
