Board member Joe Hubbard with CGHS junior Landon Blackwell

(November 21, 2019) - The CGCSC Board of School Trustees awarded Center Grove High School junior Landon Blackwell its Shining Star Award at Thursday’s board meeting. For the last 2 years, Landon has placed close to 3000 flags on the graves of veterans in Johnson County. He started what he calls the “No Fallen Soldiers Left Behind” project using his own money. A year ago, he started accepting donations and received 500 flags from a local American Legion. This year, his goal was to place nearly 1,000 flags before Veterans Day, and to help reach this goal, his friends from his youth group came out with him to help place flags at Greenwood Cemetery. 

Landon says he was inspired by the Wounded Warrior project and his own relatives who served. They include his uncle, Jeremy, and paternal grandfather, Bill, who are Navy veterans; his maternal step-grandfather, Pete, who is an Army veteran serving 35 years. His late maternal grandfather, Tom, was a  pilot in the Vietnam War and served two tours of duty which included 943 combat missions. Landon plans to join the US Air Force after high school.