Aaron Bowerman was recognized as the Daughters of the American Revolution: Good Citizen nominee for St. Louis High School Saturday Nov. 13.

The Daughters of the American Revolution: Good Citizen award, also known as the DAR: Good Citizen award is a very prestigious decoration for a high school student. Only one person from each school is selected for this great honor. The selection process is as follows: first a committee of staff is put together, then the committee selects three nominees, and finally the student body votes to decide the recipient. 

This year’s St. Louis High School DAR: Good Citizen was Aaron Bowerman. Bowerman was selected by SLHS staff and his fellow students. 

The characteristics attributed with this award are patriotism, leadership, service, and dependability. These are core concepts of the DAR association. DAR has deep roots in American history. Speaker Nancy Michael’s own story attested to this, “My mother and grandmother have been members of DAR; this ties me to the past of my country and then some.” DAR was founded in 1890 as a response to the exclusion of women from the Sons of America. Since then, DAR has grown to include over 185,000 people. 

The guest speaker for this event was none other than Ceo Bauer, a World War II veteran from right here in Gratiot County. Bauer was raised in Carson City Michigan on a farm. In 1941, at age 19, he was drafted into the Army. Bauer Served in the 95th Infantry division. Eventually Bauer landed in Normandy, where he was one of the lucky few to send in a mail ballot to help re-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

Bauer continued to fight up until the Battle of Metz, where he was severely injured in an explosion. Afterwards, he spent the remainder of the war in an army hospital in Britain. 

In the end, Bauer stated in his own words, “To be a good citizen you need to support our nation and the condition of the rule of law to your extent to be positive and do things for your friends, family, community, and country for the betterment of America, and as I always say you are only going through this one time so it might as well be on the high road.”