G-STAR PRESS
RELEASE:
Palm Springs, Florida (March 8, 2014)
– G-Star School of the Arts (www.gstarschool.org) officially dedicated the
headquarters building of its educational project, "Into the Past: The World War
II Experience" (www.atagency.net)
to local World War II veteran Carl Arfa.
The building has been named the "CARL ARFA (69TH INF DIV) WORLD WAR II
EXPERIENCE COMMAND HEADQUARTERS". Mr.
Arfa is a World War II veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and liberation of
Germany. He has spoken on the subject of
World War II relating his personal experiences with films and photographs to
over 15,000 students in the Palm Beach County School System to standing
ovations. His heart-rending experiences
include the description of his liberation of a concentration camp, the death and
destruction that war brings, and why “Freedom Isn’t Free”. Mr. Arfa’s presentation to the 1100 students
at the G-Star School this past week brought tears and a new understanding of how
important it is to stop the evil in our world today and in the future. Mr. Arfa was overwhelmed by the reaction of
the students lining up to have their pictures taken with him, asking for
autographs - and to give him their hugs and their heartfelt thank you for
opening their eyes to a world that was unknown to them. He truly touched them
all.
Carl was joined by his family,
friends, prominent members of the community, and a very special 9th grade
student at G-Star, Madison Lillard, who presented him with an exhibit depicting
his contribution to the war, our country and our freedom. This exhibit is part of G-Star’s new program
"Student's Adopting Veteran's". In this
program, G-Star students "adopt" a World War II veteran, family of a fallen
soldier, or a survivor or family of the Holocaust and put together an exhibit
honoring them using personal stories, pictures, letters and memorabilia. These exhibits will all be displayed in the
Victory Canteen (named and styled after the WWII Volunteers for Victory Soldier
Canteen in Palm Beach). This will be the
first of four buildings for the school's $8 million permanent educational
project that the school is now fund raising for. The dedication ceremony included a color
guard presentation of the American flag by the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps –
American Veteran’s Division given to Mr. Arfa, the showing of a documentary
dedicated to the veterans of WWII produced by 10th grade G-Star
Students with an introduction by Mr. Arfa, and a presentation of the project
“Into the Past: The World War II Experience” by Dawn Hauptner, the project’s
Founder.
Mr. Arfa has volunteered and worked
tirelessly in support of “Into the Past: The World War II Experience"
educational project. Because of his
complete and true dedication to our country during the war and his sincere
dedication to the students in our community G-Star was proud to honor this great
American defender of our liberty by dedicating the Command Headquarters building
to him.
The first phase of the “Into the
Past: The World War II Experience” is to fund and build the G-Star Victory
Canteen, a $500,000 cafeteria for our students which will also be a multi-purpose educational center complete with a theatre stage, venue for
meetings and seminars, and catered-style dining. The G-Star School Foundation is an
all-volunteer non-profit organization and 100% of all donations go directly to
the project.
Students in the Arts-TV, G-Star TV is
a non-profit organization EIN# 65-0887998 d/b/a/ G-Star School of the
Arts.
For more information contact:
Dawn Hauptner,
G-Star School
Foundation
G-Star School of the
Arts
G-Star
Studios
561-818-6534
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