“This is a career first for me and simply unheard of with any other group visiting the Tomb of the Unknowns,” Crawford said. “Our guys dressed to the hilt, standing at attention at proper times and looking very impressive. That contributed to the interest of the sergeant who gave the invitation.”

Maddie Field and Taylor Gage of Ninety-One School with Brandon Otten and Sarah House of Ackerman Middle School were chosen to represent Canby schools, the community, and nation, laying a wreath at the tomb June 13.

The students had earned the honor by writing winning essays on patriotism, submitted to a panel of judges assembled by Canby’s American Legion Post 122

The wreath-laying ceremony was the highlight of the annual Ackerman field trip to Washington D.C. and other East Coast destinations including Gettysburg, Williamsburg, and New York City. They were part of a group the included about 26 students from the two schools, teachers and parent chaperones.

During a phone interview, as the group stood outside the Rockefeller Center in New York, the four students described their wreath-laying experience.

“It was exhilarating and exciting to have people watching you - it was only a short period of time but it was cool,” said Taylor Gage, 14, who dressed in his Boy Scout uniform for the ceremony. “It was a very big honor to lay the wreath. The guards told us directions ahead of time and I kind of forgot them, but then I remembered them again.”

Fellow student Maddie Field said, “It was wonderful, I have no words to describe it.” Then she talked about the interior of the guards’ quarters. “I definitely am grateful for such an amazing opportunity, because I know not many people are able to experience it. The guards told us they could change into their uniforms in just three minutes.”

Thirteen-year-old Brandon Otten called the wreath-laying ceremony a “once in a lifetime opportunity that was pretty much a dream of mine to do.” Otten said he was nervous at first, but the guard put the students at ease, explaining in advance what each was expected to do during the ceremony. “What was really cool was going downstairs where nobody gets to go,” he said. “The sergeant showed us some of his badges and told us what they were for.”

Sarah House noted that all four Canby students looked “formal” dressed in matching black and white. She was most impressed by the guards doing maneuvers at the tomb. “They looked cool, marching and doing tricks with their guns,” she said.

While in Washington, D.C., the entire Canby group visited, among other sites, the White House, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Holocaust Memorial Museum, Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol Rotunda, where they met with Oregon Congressman Kurt Schrader. Sarah House and her father were later invited to visit with Schrader in his office, which she described as “really small - like a closet.”

In New York City, the group, among other activities, caught some night life on Broadway, attending the musical “Shrek,” went to the top of Rockefeller Center, rode a ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.