{"id":15910,"date":"2025-10-30T06:27:56","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T12:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-students-to-blend-veterans-day-dia-de-los-muertos-in-fundraiser\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:52:09","slug":"mancos-students-to-blend-veterans-day-dia-de-los-muertos-in-fundraiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-students-to-blend-veterans-day-dia-de-los-muertos-in-fundraiser\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos students to blend Veterans Day, D\u00eda de los Muertos in fundraiser"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mancos fifth graders prepare for their upcoming \"To Honor & Remember\" event, which will blend Veterans Day and Dia de los Muertos. (Andrew Saletta\/Courtesy photo)|
Mancos fifth graders prepare for their upcoming \"To Honor & Remember\" event, which will blend Veterans Day and Dia de los Muertos. (Andrew Saletta\/Courtesy photo)|<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Fifth-graders who crunched numbers for spaghetti portions and fourth-graders rehearsing Mexican folk steps will lead Mancos Schools\u2019 dual celebration of Veterans Day and D\u00eda de los Muertos on Nov. 5.<\/p>\n

The event will combine patriotic songs, cultural dance and a student-run dinner to honor veterans and family members who have passed away.<\/p>\n

The event, titled \u201cTo Honor & To Remember,\u201d begins at 5 p.m. in the elementary cafeteria with a spaghetti dinner prepared by district food service staff members Eileen Eichner and CTE\/HR Director Janet Fogel.<\/p>\n

Though professionals cook the meal, fifth-grade classes planned the dinner logistics. Students designed the menu, calculated serving sizes, estimated attendance, determined purchase quantities and balanced a budget. Their numbers were reviewed by Fogel.<\/p>\n

Students will greet diners, serve food cafeteria-style and clean tables. Fifth-graders also interviewed for dinner roles, practiced service protocols and created thank-you cards for veterans.<\/p>\n

A $5 suggested donation per plate covers expenses and sends remaining proceeds to the local Veterans of Foreign Wars. Walmart contributed $200 toward ingredients, and additional support came from the high school student council.<\/p>\n

The joint theme emerged from annual fall concerts that have alternated between Veterans Day and D\u00eda de los Muertos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always do some kind of fall time show, and over the years, I\u2019ve done a handful of Veterans Day themes and a handful of Dia de los Muertos themes,\u201d Andrew Saletta, K-12 music director told The Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI know the community really loves these themes, so I figured what is common between these two holidays, and that is honoring and remembering. So I decided we should go with both themes. I knew that the fifth grade often does a pancake breakfast for local veterans so I checked with the fifth grade teachers to see if they wanted to adapt to more of a dinner for veterans that could then be combined with our concert.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dinner seating prioritizes veterans, their families and relatives of fourth and fifth grade students. Reservations are required and can be made by calling (970) 533-7748 or (970) 533-7744, or emailing afarrar@mancosre6.edu<\/a> or tmaki@mancosre6.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At 5:45 p.m., participants will head to the Performing Arts Center, where D\u00eda de los Muertos ofrendas and student artwork will line the lobby. The free concert, open to the community, starts at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Fourth graders will perform two folk dances, fifth graders will sing two patriotic numbers and the Blue Jay band will present hero-themed selections. Special guests from Fort Lewis College\u2019s Ballet Folklorico will showcase additional dances in traditional dress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

theme is centered around remembering<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,155,28,83,961,392,60,29,185],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-mancos-elementary-school","tag-mancos-school-district-re-6","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-serving-veterans"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15910"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19910,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15910\/revisions\/19910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15910"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}