News Photo by Julie Goldberg Thunder Bay Junior High School Principal Steve Genschaw, left, is presented a new flag from Exchange Club of Alpena President Shawn Ballor on Tuesday during the club’s Freedom Shrine rededication ceremony. The flag will hang in front of the school.

ALPENA — A Freedom Shrine contains important documents on American history, Alpena High School junior Evan Carlson told Thunder Bay Junior High School students on Tuesday.

The Exchange Club of Alpena’s Freedom Shrine rededication ceremony took place Tuesday at the junior high. The event was held on Constitution Day, commemorating the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

Carlson, president of the Wildcat Exchange Excel Club, told the students they’re the future of the nation.

“Looking at this amazing group of young people, I know the America that I know and love will be a beacon of freedom and light beyond my years and for lifetimes to come,” Carlson said.

Keynote speaker William Romstadt, retired TBJH teacher and coach, said those who served in World War II are his heroes.

“They are my heroes and they’ll always be heroes,” he said. “Those are the people I believe in.”

Exchange Club President Shawn Ballor gave a flag to junior high Principal Steve Genschaw. Genschaw said the event was on Constitution Day, less than a week after the anniversary of one of the scariest days in American history: the terrorist attacks on New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

“There’s not even a student left here who was alive for it at that time, and that’s a day our nation came under attack,” Genschaw said. “I remember that day very vividly, I was in this building, I was teaching in the morning, and, all of a sudden, someone came into my classroom and told me that the World Trade Center had been hit by a jet airplane.”

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.