Butterfield students connect with veterans (VIDEO)

As Maricopa prepares for its first Veterans Day Parade this weekend, children are learning all about those who served.

Fifth grade student Brady McMullen and his little brother Jack submitted a photo of their great-grandfather William Davis to a project at school that honors veterans.

Davis served during the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.

A large wall inside the school is home to a collage of photos and information about students’ family-member veterans.

“They served in war so we could have freedom for our country,” Brady McMullen said.

Jack and Brady never had a chance to meet their great-grandfather, but the veterans wall at their school is helping them learn about him.

Students fill out forms about their family members who are veterans, attach a photo and place it on the wall for the month of November.

“I think it’s important for them to honor veterans,” said Kristin McMullen, fifth grade teacher and mom of Jack and Brady. “These are kids that- they’ve grown up always with our country at war and it’s just important to know the sacrifices that people have made for them.”

The wall shows students their personal connection to history.

“He was stationed in Pearl Harbor when they were bombed by the Japanese and he was sent to, I think it was, South East Asia in the war started to fight,” Brady said.

Kristin McMullen said it’s also a way for some kids to get to know their living veteran family members, an opportunity she didn’t have.

“I personally did it because my grandfather passed away when I was in fourth grade, so I never was given the opportunity to ask him any of the questions and so I just want to make sure that they’re able to talk to their family members and find out something that they did that was pretty great,” McMullen said.