MASON — Veterans Day was recently celebrated with many services and assemblies throughout the area and country.

Although Veterans Day is over, students at Wahama High School will pay tribute to local veterans with a book, which is expected to be released by February or early March. Walter Raynes, WHS teacher, organized the project last fall with his 11th grade English students, who are now seniors.

According to Raynes, students interviewed area veterans and wrote short biographies about the veterans’ experiences. The biographies were then compiled into one book, which is currently in the process of being published.

“The book is about veterans from World War II to the most recent in the Gulf and Afghanistan. Each student interviewed a different veteran,” Raynes said. “There are 32 different veterans featured — all are war veterans.”

He added that individual students were assigned one veteran to interview. According to Raynes, the biographies depict the veterans’ time spent in the war, their experiences as well as their viewpoint on what the experience meant to them.

“The students did an excellent job on the book, but the main thing is in addition to writing skills, they have learned to have more respect for our veterans,” Raynes said. “Our veterans are our everyday heroes, neighbors and grandparents — that is the biggest thing that the kids learned.”

According to Raynes, he got the idea for his students to write a book on veterans after the success of another book his students wrote, which was on area senior citizens.

“I wanted to take the idea and do something bigger,” he said, adding that the book project was made possible through a $6,000 donation from AEP River Transportation.

Raynes credited Bruce Darst of AEP River Transportation as one of the main forces in securing funding for the book. In addition to a learning experience, Raynes said that the students will be able to put that they are published in a book on resumes.

“I think (writing a book) is something that not many kids get to experience, he said. “I preach writing to my kids. If you make (the subject) relevant to the kids and show its purpose they can do a good job.”

Pre-orders for the book will be announced at a later date. Once the book is releasesd, WHS plans to have a reception for the veterans that participated.