Robyn Hage doesn’t just teach students about history.
She gets them involved.
Ms. Hage initiated a letter-writing project for Beverly Elementary students to place messages on the graves of 26 Toledo service members buried at Normandy, France.
“The most important thing I want students to understand is the connection between the young men who sacrificed and were willing to pay the ultimate price so that they (the students) could have their freedom today.”
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Hage returns to France again this year to observe the commemoration of D-Day on June 6, where she will place photos at the base of each Toledo native’s headstone with the letters written by the students. “Most of (the letters) centered around the idea that they had veterans in their family…and they connected it to (those people). And they mentioned how brave these people were.”
Hage is a longtime music teacher and serves as TPS historian. She has visited the American Cemetery at Normandy at least a half dozen times. This year, she will visit other nearby cemeteries and the starting point of the allied invasion of Europe, Omaha Beach. Total allied casualties exceeded 10,000 with 4,414 allied troops killed in action.
Hage became emotional recounting her visits to Normandy. “To stand on the beaches and think about what these guys endured is just overwhelming. I just want to remember them because they also paid the ultimate price for our freedom and they cannot be lost to history.
Each life a story
The 26 Toledo area soldiers with graves in Normandy all have individual stones. Arthur Silverman was a graduate of Libbey High School.
“He never had the opportunity to comb his gray hair or have a family or children,” Hage said softly. “It’s just incredibly moving that he would be willing to sacrifice his life for us.”
George Rejner was 27 years old when he was killed in France after he enlisted in the Army, believing it was his duty to fight and protect his children. Jack Runkel was a 1941 graduate of DeVilbiss High School who lived on Barrows Street. He jumped into Normandy with the 101st Airborne and was killed on D-Day, June 6, 1944. These are among the service members honored by Ms. Hage and thousands of others during ceremonies in France. Ms. Hage is retiring but will continue to help honor veterans. Pearl Harbor Day, she said, is the day “that shocked the world. It really did. But D-Day, June 6, is the day that we turned that around.”
To learn more about Normandy, go to abmc.gov/Normandy.
