BHMS Student Inspires School Display of Military Flags
Bunker Hill Middle School sixth grader Christopher Rayca is not daydreaming when he enters through the front doors of the school every day, with his eyes focused upward and his head in the clouds, as it may appear. Rayca’s gaze is naturally drawn upward where eight flags, seven military flags and the BHMS flag, are now affixed permanently on both sides of the school’s expansive atrium.
Rayca, whose father Sgt. First Class Robert Rayca is currently in the U.S. Army, had approached school principal Mike D’Ostilio about placing a P.O.W./M.I.A. flag in the school. The display grew from there and now provides a daily salute to the U.S. Armed Services.
“My dad was deployed down to Washington during the attack on the Capitol, and I really wanted something for everyone to remember him, or any other family member in any of the military branches, by,” Rayca said. “So I thought maybe I could put a P.O.W. /M.I.A. flag up there to remember the ones who went missing in action, and the ones who became prisoners of war way back when during all of those horrible wars.”
D’Ostilio took Rayca’s suggestion and expanded it to include all branches of the service. Seven flags now on display include the flags of the Space Force, Air Force, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Marines and POW/MIA. The eighth flag is the Bunker Hill Middle School Bulldog flag.
“I didn’t expect Mr. D’Ostilio to put them in the atrium,” said Rayca, who would like to pursue a career in the Air Force. “I was really expecting him to hang them on the wall. I like how they are just flying, with the light shining down on them. It looks so beautiful sometimes. You are walking down the steps or through the atrium, and you know that the flags are in there. Now, every time I walk in, I look straight up and see the flags, and I just feel happy on the inside knowing that I feel safe in a country with all these military branches are around me and protecting me at all times, trying to keep our country free.”
Rayca admittedly also feels safe when this father is around.
“In 2015-16, my father was deployed to Cuba for one year,” he said. “That was pretty hard for me as a very young kid. Now that he is off deployment, I just feel safe around him or inside the house when he is inside the house. When I told him about this project, he loved it and was very proud.”
“We had wanted to have the military flags displayed in the atrium here for a long time,” D’Ostilio said. “We have a lot of military connections in this school. A lot of students have family in the military. Secretary Tina Callahan has a daughter in the Navy. My secretary, Debbie DiJohn, has a son in the Air Force stationed in Italy. My father is a retired Army veteran. With my connection with the military and in talking with Chris, he was relaying experiences as if he is talking about my own childhood. That’s why I felt an immediate connection to Chris. I know what it’s like to get nervous about where your dad is and where he is going to have to defend. My dad was deployed to Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, and I remember all the equipment he had in the garage ready to go. I talked with Chris about where his dad has been deployed, and I get it. It’s very real. It’s very scary, and it only works if you have a good family unit, which Chris has.
“We are very proud of this display, he said, “and very proud that Chris was part of the process.”
Eight flags can be seen over the shoulders of BHMS sixth grader Christopher Rayca and building principal Mike D’Ostilio. The flags permanently adorn the atrium of Bunker Hill Middle School thanks to a suggestion by sixth-grade student Christopher Rayca, vision and funding by BHMS principal Mike D’Ostilio and the manpower of Dave Karmade from the District maintenance staff who positioned the flags in a lofty spot of honor.
A blue sky beautifully frames the flags that are now on display in the Bunker Hill Middle School lobby.
Principal Mike D’Ostilio points out the location of the POW/MIA flag that was suggested by Rayca.