The wake is Thursday from 2 to 7 p.m. at Ludlow Funeral Home on East Street.
Joshua Desforges is seen in an undated family photograph.LUDLOW – The students at Veterans Park Elementary School have had a “special relationship” with Marine Sgt. Joshua D. Desforges, the 23-year-old Ludlow native who died May 12 as a result of a hostile incident while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Joshua’s mother, Arlene, is a teacher’s aide for a special education student in the school, Veterans Park Principal Susan Dukeshire said.
Dukeshire said Joshua had asked his mother whether her school could collect school supplies to help a school in the area where he was serving in Afghanistan.
In March the students held a Sportswear Day where students could wear sportswear if they brought in either pencils, pens, markers or glue sticks to donate to the school in Afghanistan.
Dukeshire said the Student Council told the students “no crayons” since crayons would melt in the heat in Afghanistan.
The students collected a sizable amount of school supplies, Dukeshire said. She said some students also donated money to pay the cost of mailing the items to Desforges’ unit.
Dukeshire said the school plans to continue to collect school supplies “on behalf of Joshua.”
“We hope to get a contact in Joshua’s unit,” Dukeshire said.
“The students feel they have a special relationship with Joshua,” Dukeshire said.
She said his death had a big impact on the staff and students at Veterans Park School. Counseling was made available to the students, but because of the age of the students at Veterans Park School, discussion of the Marine’s death mostly was left to the students’ parents, Dukeshire said.
The students at Veterans Park School are in fourth and fifth grades.
The wake for Desforges is Thursday from 2 to 7 p.m. at Ludlow Funeral Home, 432 East Street. During the wake there will be no parking along East Street between Brookfield and Laconia Streets.
Desforges, a Ludlow native and member of the Ludlow High School Class of 2004, is the first town resident killed in action since Douglas A. Walker, a helicopter pilot with the U.S. Army, was shot down in Vietnam in 1968.
A military funeral for Desforges will be Friday morning at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. The funeral procession will leave Ludlow Funeral Home at 10 a.m. and travel up East Street to Chapin Street to Fuller Street to West Street to Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee.
Residents are invited to assemble along the procession route in Ludlow. School in Ludlow has been closed for the day and residents are invited to park at Ludlow High School, Veterans Park School, Baird Middle School and Chapin Street School to watch the procession.
The Ludlow High School band will play in front of Ludlow High School during the procession.
The funeral is at 11 a.m. at Westover Air Force Base and is by private invitation of the Desforges family. Dignitaries invited to the funeral include U.S. Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, Gov. Deval L. Patrick, state Sen. Gale D. Candaras and state Rep. Thomas M. Petrolati.
In his time in the Marines, Desforges earned several commendations, including the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and NATO International Security Assistance Force Medal.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Desforges’ memory to Westover Young Marines 51 Terry Lane, East Longmeadow MA 01028 or online at www.ludlowfuneralhome.com.