Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mundelein High School will not hold a public Veterans Day ceremony this year. For the past few years, MHS has hosted an event that draws hundreds of area veterans and their families for a formal ceremony which also included breakfast and lunch for the honorees. Patriotic songs played by MHS bands and sung by the choirs added to the solemnity of the event. MHS has always held school on Veterans Day to help educate the students about the contributions members of our military make to our society.

An MHS graduate and army veteran will be the keynote speaker this year as the ceremony will go remote. Students will view the recorded speech in their English classes and a video will be available soon after for public viewing. The speaker, Zaneta Adams, is an MHS Class of 1995 alumna and is currently the Director of the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency. She was chosen in 2017 as a Distinguished MHS Alumna. Adams was severely injured while preparing to go to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom and was told she would never walk again. Her grit and determination allowed her to recover and, after serving in the military, she worked as an attorney and is president and founder of Women Injured in Combat (WINC). She has earned US Army Medals, the US Army Reserve Warrior Citizen Award, Law School Great Deeds Award, Black Women’s Political Caucus member, and recognized in the Fall 2017 edition of Distinguished Attorneys magazine.

Chris Lagioia, social studies/world studies department chair, has organized the event.