Wicker celebrates veterans and receives Christmas ornaments in visit

Photo: Sen. Roger Wicker hears about one of the Christmas ornaments on display at Lewisburg High School during his stop of Friday, Nov. 8 (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)

Nov. 8, 2024 – Fresh off Tuesday’s re-election to the U.S. Senate, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker made two stops at DeSoto County schools on Friday. One stop was to help celebrate veterans at an elementary school, while the other celebrated high school art students whose work will be on display in the Senator’s Capitol Hill office during the Christmas holiday season.  

Sen. Wicker has made it a tradition over the past several years to display the talents of state art students as ornaments on his office Christmas tree. This past summer, Lewisburg principal Kris Perkins was contacted by Wicker’s office, requesting that his school provide this year’s ornaments. 

Art instructor Kathleen Downing was contacted and the offer was accepted. Starting in September, Downing said her students began with the theme of Mississippi and the Olympics. 

“They just went with the Olympics and Mississippi and took off creatively,” Downing said. “It was really awesome.” 

As part of Friday’s visit, Wicker stopped at Lewisburg High School to view the ornaments that will be hanging on his office’s tree on Capitol Hill.  

“I am absolutely astounded by the creativity,” Wicker said. “This ranked right up at the top. I don’t think I’ve seen a better group or more creative bunch of students.”

Downing said the ornaments will be a good representation of her students’ work. 

“They also know that I have a certain level of quality I expect from them so they really performed and they got really creative with their material; whatever they could do to get their ornament hanging and perfect,” Downing said. 

For Wicker, he expects the ornaments will bring people to come in and check out the students’ work.  

“This has gotten to be a little bit of a Christmas attraction on the Hill because people in the Senate offices know that we sponsored this in this special way,” the Senator said. “Their ornaments are going to be proudly displayed in Washington, D.C.”

After the Christmas season, the ornaments will be returned to Lewisburg and to the art students.   

Earlier Friday morning, Wicker took part in the annual Veterans Day program at Pleasant Hill Elementary School in Olive Branch. He spoke about the history of Veterans Day and its beginnings as Armistice Day and the signing of the armistice to end World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month, being November.  

Wicker said the program thanked veterans who fought to ensure America has free elections, like the general election that took place on Tuesday.  

“We had dozens and dozens and dozens of veterans that we were honoring,” Wicker said. “I was able to point out that we had a free election Tuesday and today and next Monday with Veterans Day observances, we’ll be thanking the people who stepped forward and gave us the freedom and opportunity to still have a free and fair election.”

Part of the Pleasant Hill program was a slideshow with photos of veterans contributed by students and families of the school’s students.