“The kids want to see the city, but more than seeing the city, they see the people in the city,” Brinck said.
The students carry cards to the memorials to hand to veterans thanking them for their service. The cards include the name of the school and the location in Oxford, Ohio.
This year’s trip gave the students a chance to meet a group of Honor Flight veterans being given a one-day trip to visit the memorials.
“One bus had a very special encounter at the Marine Memorial — Iwo Jima. An Honor Flight bus pulled up to Iwo Jima at the same time as our tour bus and 35 World War II veterans from West Virginia piled out with their wheelchairs and canes. Our students rushed over to assist and talk with the veterans as they toured the memorial. For 25 minutes people generations apart talked and shared stories and even cried happy tears when thank you(s) were shared.” Brinck said. “One soldier really touched three of our students with his story. He was on a ship in the Pacific when he came under attack from Japanese kamikaze pilots.
“His ship went down and he was one of only eight survivors. He was in D.C. to visit the graves of his shipmates, as he was the last surviving member of his ship at age 97. He had them enthralled. We visit the same places every year, but there are always new wrinkles for the kids.”
One year, he said, they met a man who has been the right-hand man for Winston Churchill. Brinck had bumped into him by chance and the students were able to meet someone who had been close to history. Another time, TMS students arrived at a memorial during “Rolling Thunder,” which is when veterans on motorcycles tour.
For the 2012 trip, Brinck introduced the idea of the cards for veterans, which proved to be a huge success and will continue.
“Students were to take a piece of paper and write a short note and give that note to a veteran they met on tour in Washington, D.C. Most wrote a small note (unsigned) of thanks for serving and protecting our freedoms. Every encounter was quick and pleasant for the students,” he said.
One note had a profound effect on Brinck and his students.
After returning home, Brink was forwarded an email message sent to the school by a recipient of one of those cards who tracked down the school online. It was written by World War II veteran Bruce K. Manner:
“After placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on May 25 in Washington D.C., I was approached by a young man who was a stranger to me. He asked if I was a veteran. When I said yes, he handed me a folded piece of paper and said, ‘I want to give you this note and to say thank you.’ I was a bit overwhelmed that such a young man would express his thanks to a total stranger. I thanked him and asked him his name (due to my emotional state I can’t remember it). I stored the note in my pocket and gave the young man a hug. Later in the day, after collecting myself, I opened the note and read it. Once again, my emotional state escalated to tears. The paper displayed the letterhead of Talawanda Middle School with the title: LETTER TO A SOLDIER. The note read, ‘Thank you for serving our country. You are a true hero and you should be proud of yourself. You are a great citizen and should be honored. Thank you for your dedicated service.’
“It was not signed. This gesture, coming from such a young man, had a very big impact on me. It gives me hope for the future of our great nation to see that our youth care enough about the sacrifices made by so many to insure the freedoms we enjoy today. I was humbled that such a young child thought enough about my sacrifice that he thanked me with that note. Please share my sincere gratitude with your students and with the young boy who made a veteran a very happy man that day. He made your school and an Army Veteran very proud by his actions.”
Brinck is committed to seeing that any student who wants to go on the annual trip is able to do so. Students raise money with a November Market Day pie sale and a December cookie dough sale. He takes every opportunity to talk about the trip and ask for donations to help with scholarships for students to be able to take part.
Cost is $535 per student and includes three full days in the nation’s capital. He calls the trip “first class” and notes that other schools in the county pay more for trips that do not include as much.
“I try hard to get as many to go as possible,” he said. “We have enough (money) here if a kid really, truly wants to go and is worthy, we can (do that). It’s not a handout. It’s not Brinck-fare. We have resources in the community if a kid really wants to go.”
Approximately 65 percent of the class goes on the trip, which has grown from two buses to four.
He has received several anonymous donations from people wanting to help students make the trip and the W.E. Smith Family Charitable Trust recently announced a $5,000 grant to the D.C. trip to use as scholarship money.
The Smith Trust is a charitable organization designed to encourage the promotion of, study and appreciation of the local and regional history of Oxford, Ohio, as well as to Butler County and the immediately adjacent counties.
Brinck said he approaches total strangers on the trip, introduces himself and tries to learn if the other person has a story to tell. The students catch on to that and watch for him to do so.
“By the time the trip is nearly over, the kids hang around behind me and if I talk to someone they all get around me,” he said. “It makes for a busy three days but one the students, and chaperones, will remember. We go from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We are not sunning by the pool and we are not shopping. We’re seeing the city.”
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