"You are heroes through and through, I can't explain how much we appreciate you,"
Reese Dobbins said Friday during the Neelyville R-IV School District's annual Veterans Day ceremony.
Nearly 40 veterans were honored in front of the school and community through musical performances, poetry readings and even a yo-yo routine by students.
Vietnam veteran Bobby Lawson, who is also a Neelyville alumni, said he has been attending the annual program for as long as he can remember.
"The assembly is excellent," he said. "I wouldn't miss it. Every year it gets better and better."
Lawson said it felt great to be honored and recognized in front of friends and family, including his girlfriend Sherri Tarantino.
"There is so much talent at the school," Tarantino said. "I love it!"
During the ceremony, Neelyville art teacher Lisa French and history teacher Brandi Lumby recognized several of the talented students by announcing the art winners of the teacher's collaborative projects.
"This is our seventh year working together and it's one of my favorite projects," French said.
Students spent many hours before and after school creating two canvas paintings featuring soldiers fighting in Vietnam and present day of them taking a moment to view the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall while reflecting what they went through while serving.
Veteran Emmett Morgan, and Lumby's step-father, announced following the ceremony the two canvases would be taken to the Stars and Stripes Museum in Bloomfield.
A WWI painting was created last year and has traveled the area with Morgan to be displayed at different events and locations. The Vietnam canvasses will join the WWI painting at the Valentines for Veterans concert in February at the Black River Coliseum in Poplar Bluff.
"I commend the Neelyville School District and all the work put into these (paintings)," Morgan said. "We thank you as veterans to the school for what you have done for us."
Army veteran Harold Duncan Jr. attended the ceremony for the first time this year and was accompanied by his wife, Nereida Santiago-Duncan, and step-daughter, Angelique Santiago.
"I was very proud to see him honored," Santiago-Duncan said of her husband. "Today was really nice."
With their first ceremony under their belts, the family said they plan to attend each year, at least for the time while their seventh grade and kindergarten students are attending Neelyville Schools.
"I appreciate the ceremony a lot," Duncan said. "It's good to know nowadays people appreciate veterans because it has not always been that way."