NEW HAVEN, Conn. (July 16, 2023)— American Legion New Haven Post 210 was proud to support an international student history program with a Sunday afternoon history and pizza party.
Post 210 sponsored dozens of French and Connecticut high school students at Southern Connecticut State University, complete with a presentation by History Professor Jason Smith on New Haven apizza and a stack of pies from renowned Pepe’s Pizza.
Digging Into History: On the Road with Rochambeau organizer and Post 210 Historian Christine Pittsley brought the 13 French and 16 American students to see the newly-rededicated Great War Flagpole on the New Haven Green, informally tour Yale University, and explore New Haven-style pizza (thin-crust pizza that is traditionally baked in a coal-fired brick oven). SCSU Coordinator of Veteran, Military and Adult Learning Support and Post 210 Chaplain Britt Conroy secured the donated space and American Legion Post 210 past Commander Charles M. Pickett catered the meal.
Digging Into History is an experiential learning program of the Museum of Connecticut History division of the Connecticut State Library, where Connecticut and French High School students from the Seicheprey region learn about our nations’ shared military history by excavating historical sites in each country. In 2019, Connecticut students restored a section of trench line once occupied by Connecticut soldiers during WWI. In 2023, French students joined 16 Connecticut students in excavating the American Revolution War camp of comte de Rochambeau’s French army in Bolton, Connecticut. Students participating in the program are ambassadors, re-affirming the friendship once held so dear between France and the people of Connecticut.
The American Legion was established in Paris, France in the wake of World War I, by delegates to a caucus meeting from units of the American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.). The city of New Haven has a special connection to Seicherey, France through an early WWI battle involving the Connecticut National Guard 1-102nd Infantry Regiment which mustered on Camp Yale in 1918 and drilled on the Green.
Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association – W3R Commune de Seicheprey ComCom MadetMoselle
