Each year at Chagrin Falls Exempted Village Schools, two students have been selected to give either the Gettysburg Address or Logan’s Order during the Memorial Day Ceremonies at Evergreen Cemetery. Early on the Address was given by a high school student until 1959 when Jacquelyn Tait Leebrick ’65 was the first sixth grader to do so. Logan’s Order was not initially done until later.
The link includes the names of the presenters. If you know of any missing names, then please email us.
A Family TRADITION (Aug. 2010)
JOE BISTRITZ ’16 won the 6th grade speech contest and, due to the victory, delivered Lincoln’s Get¬tysburg Address at Evergreen Hill Cemetery during Chagrin’s 2010 Memorial Day ceremony. Joe joins a long family line in this honor: his sisters Jennifer ’02 and Stepha¬nie ’05, mother Martha Beattie Bistritz ’77, cousin J.B. Raftus ’78, and aunt Sue Beattie ’82 have all delivered Lincoln’s famous speech.
The tradition began when Joe’s grandfather, Ralph Beattie ’43, during his junior year English class at CFHS, volunteered to recite it on “Decoration Day” – before the inception of the contest that was in-troduced in the middle school ranks.