A whole bunch of pennies have added up to the trip of a lifetime for a Rossford World War II veteran.
The eighth-grade class at All Saints Catholic School collected enough pennies – $900 worth-to send Bill
Santus on today’s Honor Flight Northwest Ohio trip to Washington, D.C.
If the fundraiser wasn’t enough, the 16 students in Michele Mikonowicz’s class, who are on a field trip
to the nation’s capital, will greet Santus as he steps off the bus.
"I tell you them kids, they worked so hard. They did one heck of a job to get that money," said
Santus, who met with the class in February.
"They asked different questions about the war, what I did," he said. "I don’t think they
really understood but they were interested and asking questions. They were nice kids."
Mikonowicz said WWII is not part of the eighth-grade curriculum, but the class researched the memorial
and the war to prepare for meeting Santus and the field trip. They created infomercials about the war,
which were shared with the rest of the school, and studied the Holocaust to ready for a visit to that
museum this week.
"They really, really got into it," she said.
The class, with the help of Santus’s wife, Anne, created a book for him, filled with cards of thanks,
prayers and well-wishes. They presented it to him at a special February Mass at All Saints, where the
Santuses are also members.
"We’ve really been tied with him for a few months," Mikonowicz said.
When Santus and the other veterans arrive at the memorial, the class will welcome them with cheers and
patriotic flags.
Santus, who is 86, served in the Army infantry as a rifleman on the front lines. He was wounded in a
foxhole close to the Rhine River in Germany and received the Purple Heart.
"All I can tell you is something exploded and it was shrapnel," said Santus, who was sent back
into combat after his recovery. "By the time I got to back my unit, the war was over. I was
lucky."
Back home, he settled in Rossford where he worked for Libbey-Owens-Ford, retiring in 1987. He and his
wife have been married 64 years and have five children.
Today’s Honor Flight is the first of the 2011 season. Thanks to the largest donation in the group’s
history, by Northcoast Jobs Connection, a 160-seat Airbus has been chartered. It will carry 80 veterans
and their guardians.
They will be escorted to the WWII Memorial and ones dedicated to the Korean War, Marine Corps and
Vietnam. They will also see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National
Cemetery.
Since 2008, Honor Flight Northwest Ohio has flown 462 veterans on 17 flights at no charge.