HISTORY OF 'LEST WE FORGET'
'Build it and they will come'
The patriotic concept of “Lest We Forget” should be duplicated in communities in the United States. All it takes is a group of patriotic individuals who don’t mind doing a little work. We have always operated under the old acronym: TEAM—Together Everyone Accomplishes More. But, our operating principle is “To brighten the future we must illuminate the past.”
In 2001 four veterans approached the Berrien County, Michigan ISD with the idea of gathering stories from local veterans and putting them into a video format that teachers could use in teaching about the sacrifices made by those who served their country during wartime. The meeting resulted in a video series over the next several years called:
“Lest We Forget WWII”
“Lest We Forget Korea”
“Lest We Forget Vietnam.”
"Lest We Forget Modern Day Wars"
All three of these documentaries have captured national awards for excellence and are not only being shown in local schools, but are being telecast by the Berrien Springs (MI) Regional Educational Service Agency to schools throughout the United States.
To learn about this long distance TV learning opportunity, contact Janine Lim at jlim@remc11.k12.mi.us The classes watch the video and then through video teleconferencing they ask questions of a group of veterans located in Berrien Springs Michigan.
From this initial project Don Alsbro (Vietnam) and Marvin Fuller (WWII) continued to promote various veteran events within the community and in the fall of 2005 with the assistance of Jim Brinkmann (Korea) LWF developed a five day “2006 Lest We Forget Patriotic Celebration” that attracted hundreds of people. One of our speakers was Bob Heft, who in 1958 designed the 50 star American flag that we fly today, and he said, “In almost 50 years and over 9,000 patriotic events that I’ve participated in, this was the finest event I’ve been in.”
In 2006 Lest We Forget became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the goal of promoting patriotism within the community.