West Valley High School recognizes military-connected students, raises awareness with Purple Up Day assembly

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - On April 15, West Valley High School in Fairbanks recognized the students connected to military members with an assembly and a reception as part of Month of the Military Child.

While West Valley High School has fewer military-connected students than other district schools, such as Lathrop or North Pole High School, the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program (JROTC) and the administration still wanted to acknowledge those students.

“Sometimes it’s a little hard to understand what that specifically means and just having an assembly where we can show the recognition for those particular students that are here in our community,” said Carlos Cruz, a retired Chief Warrant Officer from the Marines and the current instructor for the high school’s Marine JROTC program. “It is just a little bit more awareness to them.”

The assembly marked the start of the school’s Purple Up Day. During the assembly, members of the JROTC program performed a drill, spinning and tossing 1903 Springfield rifle mock-ups. Students, staff, and the borough mayor also performed a small competition of endurance and strength as part of the assembly.

“The main significance and its part of the reason we’re having this assembly is especially letting the civilian population know our military connectedness,” Mark Winford, the principal of West Valley High School, explained. “On the flip side is, you know, recognizing those military-connected students.”

Cruz said it’s important because “Parents choose to join the service. Parents choose to move. A child does not make any of those choices. The child just goes along with their parents. So it is, it is a little bit harder for them.”

According to Winford, this mainly manifests through frequent transitions as military families relocate from one base to another.

“All of our schools have public-connected, not public, but military-connected students. So it’s something that we always have to be cognizant of and aware of, you know, just as educators,” Winford said.

Following the assembly, a small reception was held for those students who were treated with cupcakes and other pastries in recognition as part of Purple Up Day at the school.

About half of the students in the JROTC program at West Valley High School are military-connected.

In other recognitions at the school, Cruz was also named the VFW Interior Teacher of the Year. He received this award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary Post 3629 in Fairbanks.

“It’s very humbling ... it’s a testament to the other instructors that are retired veterans such as myself,” Cruz said.

He added that it was also humbling to be recognized amidst what are primarily Army and Air Force JROTC instructors since West Valley High School is the “only Marine ROTC school in the entire state of Alaska.”

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