Valparaiso Student Wins Essay Contest and Trip to Washington D.C.

Daane DeBoer

What does patriotism mean to you? Well to Lindsey DeBoer of Valparaiso, it means more since she lost her brother, Daane, in Afghanistan seven months ago.  Lindsey recently won a VFW Speech Contest when she wrote about the day she and her family received the news that the 24 year old Marine Corps Corporal was killed in the line of duty.

An article in last Wednesday’s Post Tribune wrote of Lindsey’s essay in a way that described that terrible moment when two Marines in their dress blue uniforms pull up to the curb outside the family’s home.

Her school will be taking a trip to Washington D.C. in the spring, and Lindsey was selected to be one of the students able to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Lindsey is the daughter of David and Mary DeBoer of Valparaiso. Mary DeBoer was at one time a deputy prosecutor and magistrate in Starke County Circuit Court. For more on this, go to the Facebook page “Daane DeBoer is a Hero.”