Mount Vernon High School in Fairfax County recently hosted its first barbecue event to welcome military-connected families to the area. The event was organized by the Mount Vernon High School Purple Team, a student group dedicated to supporting students with military backgrounds.
Audrey Ortiz-Peterson, a senior at Mount Vernon and president of the Purple Team, has attended eight different schools due to her family’s military service. She spoke about the challenges and growth that come with frequent moves: “It’s pretty emotional because you leave your friends and everything you’ve known for the past year or two, and you have to completely make new friends or build a new life,” Audrey explained, “but it’s also built a lot of character for me. It’s made me super resilient and able to build more support in my relationships, like with my family and my past friends. It’s also super awesome to go to new places and meet new people.”
The barbecue gave military families in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) an opportunity to connect with each other as well as with resources provided by the FCPS Office of Family and School Partnerships. About 13,500 students in FCPS are from military families.
Katie Server, family partnership specialist for military-connected youth and families, emphasized the importance of such events: “We’re bringing them together so that they can connect with one another, celebrate their military culture, and just feel welcome as we start the school year.”
Food for the event was sponsored by local businesses including Mission BBQ, Starbucks, Fort Belvoir Commissary, and Educate Fairfax. Activities included games like cornhole and football organized by student volunteers as well as crafts for younger children.
United States Army Major Andrew Durfee attended after moving his family from New Jersey two weeks before school started. He described how meaningful this type of welcome is: “We have both kids kind of at a daycare and in the school district, so coming in right before the school year was tough,” he explained, “so this has been a nice, you know, soft landing for us coming into a new duty station.” Durfee added: “Children go through a lot being in military families, having to move, uprooting friends, families, and locations, and it’s very daunting for them coming into a new place. I feel very comfortable coming to a place that accepts military families. I feel much safer that the kids are going to be taken care of.”
Kimberly Hartford relocated from Texas to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland; her daughters will attend Fort Belvoir Elementary School and Mount Vernon High School this fall. She noted: “Everyone was so welcoming,” she said. “Anywhere we went, they were very informative. Any questions we had, it felt like they anticipated the question; they were prepared for it. And that, as a parent, makes me feel way more comfortable to be able to know what’s going on when my kid is at school.”
Mount Vernon High School is recognized as a Distinguished Purple Star School—a designation given to schools committed to supporting military-connected families—and FCPS plans for all 199 schools in its system to achieve this status by fall 2026. Currently 96 schools hold this distinction.
Audrey Ortiz-Peterson shared advice for fellow students who may be facing similar transitions: “Stay open-minded, stay resilient, you never know what’s going to happen,” she said. “Try everything the school has to offer. Definitely put yourself out there.”
