Canyon Ridge Elementary School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade campus in the Dysart Unified School District, hosted its annual celebration of United States Constitution Day Sept. 17.

The school’s goals are to promote patriotism, historical awareness and cross generation learning from senior citizens from the different community organizations.

Seventh-grade students performed in costume as various founding fathers and founding mothers. They had selected their characters from a diverse list of more than 30 American patriots and based their presentation on extensive historical research.

Learners in the younger grades, participated in a question-and-answer session with the founders and generated notes and responses for further study in their classes.

Another highlight of the campus-wide program was the exhibit, “The Many Faces of George Washington.”

This 70-foot-long traveling exhibit was on loan from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York. Donations from several community organizations, including Arizona Sons of the American Revolution, Arizona Daughters of the American Revolution and Veterans of Foreign Wars, provided the needed funding for this single Arizona appearance of the exhibition.

Volunteers from NSSAR Saguaro Chapter, NSDAR Agua Fria Chapter, VFW Post 2135 and Liberty Ladies from Sun City West and Sun City Grand served as presenters and tour guides for more than 700 students and guests.

The display highlighted the many facets of George Washington’s life: soldier, general, leader, president and his struggles with the limitations of the time. The Liberty Ladies of Sun City West and Sun City Grand provided a free copy of the United States Constitution to all visiting students.

Volunteers from the Blue Star Moms of the Southwest Valley provided greeting cards and a homemade flag for children to sign for members of the Armed Forces serving overseas.

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