It may  have been windy… and a bit chilly yesterday morning, but that didn’t stop about 50 Faith Christian students from digging in the dirt and planting about 12,000 plants.

Every year, each grade level at Faith Christian School (FCS) conducts some sort of community service project, and this year the 3rd and 4th-graders joined man-power at the Salem VA Medical Center. Together they helped plant about 3,000 pots and 12,000 red, white, and blue flowers in shape of the American Flag to kick of the VAMC’s 75th Anniversary.

The plants came from the VA’s CWT Greenhouse on site, which employs Veterans and sells to the community.

“I’ve been buying from here forever,” Anna Grubb, parent organizer for the service project at FCS said.

Grubb learned about the 75th anniversary coming up and asked if there was any way that they could help. That’s when the plan to plant flowers in the shape of the American Flag was born.

Grubb said that her and Sandra Lane, the Horticulturist and CWT Coordinator at the VA have been planning the since about mid-summer.

“It’s wonderful. There’s no way we could do it without them,” Lane said. “We got really ambitious. The flag is something I’ve wanted to do for a while now.”

The 75th anniversary celebration which be held on the baseball field at the VA on Oct. 19 beginning at 1 p.m.

“They are going to try to recreate the ceremony they had when they opened the VA in the 30′s when President Roosevelt came,” Grubb said.

After the FCS students finished their work for the day, the VA release 200 balloons to represent the start of their 75th anniversary celebration.

Students were hard at work from 9 a.m. to after 1 p.m. and took great pride in helping their community.

“We’re making it better when people pass by,” Emily Kagey, a 4th-grader at FCS said. “When people pass by they will see that we are serving the Lord.”

View photos from the service project above in our slideshow, 0r click here for a more traditional view.