COURTESY FRANCIS LEWIS HIGH SCHOOL Francis Lewis High School’s JROTC cadets still need to raise $ 30,000 in three weeks to fund a historic trip to Normandy. It’s the inspiration 16-year-old Kevin Luong needs to seal his fate as a U.S. Army man. And it’s where Parkash Garcha, a proud Sikh, wants to show he bleeds red, white and blue.
The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps recruits are among 19 Francis Lewis High School students rallying to raise dough for a once-in-lifetime chance to march in the 70th Anniversary D-Day Parade in France this June.
“Many people died storming those beaches,” said Luong, an Oakland Gardens junior who raised $ 200 for the seven-day trip. “It really makes me look at myself and just reflect on how I can be brave and courageous like those men.”
The students from the school’s trailblazing Patriot Battalion were chosen to represent New York during the historic event on June 6. But with three weeks left to raise funds, the cash-strapped cadets are short $ 30,000.
The junior battalion washed cars, sold candy and peddled beef jerky. They also begged alumni and veterans’ groups to fund the $ 65,000 week-long sojourn to Normandy and Paris.
But their efforts to secure seats at the American Cemetery ceremony, the official memorial site for those killed during the Normandy Invasion, remain just out of reach.
“This is one of the things I want to cross off my bucket list,” said Brandon Garcia, 16, who was selected out of more than 900 cadets in the JROTC program. “I never in a million years thought I’d ever get the chance to do this.”
Nearly 160,000 Allied troops marched across Europe on June 6, 1944, and the cadets plan to parade through Sainte-Mere-Eglise, a village in France that was among the first to be liberated, setting the tone for the battle.
COURTESY FRANCIS LEWIS HIGH SCHO The trailblazing junior battalion plans to march in the 70th Anniversary D-Day Parade in France in June. “It’s extraordinary,” said Amrita Hariprashad, at 15 the youngest in the group. “There are adults who go through their whole lives and never know what it’s like to march in this trip. I get to have this chance.”
Joshua Cohen hopes to shake his heroes’ hands during the week-long sojourn.
“These veterans risked their lives so we can be where we are today,” said Cohen, 18. “I just want to thank them for all they’ve done.”
The teens won’t quit until they reach Omaha Beach, Senior Army Instructor retired Lt. Col. Al Lahood said.
“We’ll make it,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind. The Patriot Battalion has never failed at anything.”
Donations can be made online at http://ift.tt/1kfO2Nb or mailed to Francis Lewis High School JROTC, 58-20 Utopia Pkwy., Fresh Meadows, NY 11365.
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