ERMA — Lower Cape May Regional High School students, administrators and school board members honored Army Spc. Michael P. Scusa, who was killed October 3 in Afghanistan, by planting a tree in front of the school in his honor Wednesday Nov. 11.
Scusa was a 2005 graduate of the high school.
Representatives from student council, Tri-M, National Honor Society and the Key Club turned shovels of dirt next to the newly planted tree that was showing its fall color.
A military honor guard from the U.S Coast Guard was present. The student choir performed the national anthem.
A Coast Guard bugler played Taps. Many of the school’s students and administrators gathered on the steps of the auditorium under continuous light rain.
High School Principal Joseph Castellucci said the tree represented the roots that Scusa had with the school. He said the tree would remain long after the students and staff were no longer located at the school.
Castellucci accompanied Scusa’s mother, Cynthia Woodard, to turn a shovel of dirt at the tree honoring her son. He also presented Woodard with a bouquet of flowers.
Mayor Ronald Ford of Ft. Dix read remarks from a funeral service held for Scusa in Afghanistan. He said eight of the sixteen soldiers in Scusa’s unit were killed in an ambush but the actions of Scusa and his fellow soldiers saved the eight that survived the attack.
