HAMILTON — They stood tall, a sea of red, white and blue shirts in front of a huge flag that stretched across the stage at Monroe Elementary School Monday.

        “I am proud to be an American, when I look around and see different faces — red, white, black and yellow, and I see different religious beliefs — Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Jewish... ” said sixth-grader Anthony Fritz.

        “I look around and hear different languages, English, Spanish, German and Italian and yet we all for the most part are united as one, in this country we call America.”

        Anthony was one of several students who spoke during the school's 80-minute Celebrate Freedom program. It included a visit by a New York City firefighter, and honored 60 men and women for their military service.

        Each received a certificate of appreciation from the school, hand-delivered during the assembly by a family member or friend of the honoree.

        For fifth-grader Desirae Stevens, the recognition was bittersweet. Her father died of cancer seven years ago when Desirae was just 4. He had been exposed to Agent Orange during two tours of duty in Vietnam.

        “I cried today,” said Desirae, after presenting a certificate to her grandfather in her father's honor. “He meant a lot to me. It made me feel good today because we were also honoring all the people from New York but it also made me feel bad about my dad.”

        New York City firefighter Lt. Patrick Sobota, who was at the school to accept a quilt from the children, thanked the veterans for their valor.

        “Without the guys and ladies, I know we wouldn't be here,” said Lt. Sobota, just before he spoke briefly to the students about Sept. 11. He knew 40 firefighters who died, including half a dozen from the firehouse he most recently served in before being promoted and assigned to headquarters.

        “When you see trouble ... and it's your job ... you're going to go in harm's way,” Lt. Sobota said.

        Mr. Sobota will take back to New York a package of cards and letters along with a seven-foot by eight-foot remembrance quilt. It has 30 squares bordered by 42 red hands made by students from the school's 13 classrooms. All of the children designed a panel on paper.

        From those, two designs from each class were chosen and those students transferred their work to cloth using fabric markers. Each of the hands represented a $50 donation from a family or business, said teacher Therese Jordan, who spearheaded the project.

        "We were all sad because of what happened,” said Rachel Bowman, 10, who designed one of the panels with fifth-grade classmate Eliza Bradley.

        "We did a flag with dots and saying. ... We stand united and we're still here,” Eliza added.

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