You learn something new every day. This, I learned from Elgin School District U46's weekly e-mail blast.

Last week, students at Sunnydale and Lords Park elementary schools read "America's White Table" by Margot Theis Raven. The picture book explores a little-known tradition called the "MIA/POW Remembrance Table" that started on Veterans Day to remember those serving in the Armed Forces.

According to U46, each item on the table symbolizes something to honor our veterans...

• The white tablecloth: A soldier's pure heart


• A lemon slice and salt: A soldier's bitter fate and tears


• An empty chair: A missing soldier


• A black napkin: The sorrow of captivity


• A turned over glass: A meal that will not be eaten


• A white candle: Peace


• A red rose in a vase tied with a red ribbon: The hope that our missing will return someday

Something to think about as you remember the men and women who protect our country and its freedoms this Veterans Day.

-- Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter