By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Over the next several weeks, second-graders throughout the Alabaster City School System will learn about one of their most important roles while working to honor those who have made America what it is today.

“Every one of you has a title, and it’s the most important title you will ever have: A United States citizen,” Cynthia Green with the Liberty Learning Foundation told a group of Meadow View Elementary School second-graders during a Jan. 8 assembly. “Being a citizen of this country is one of the most wonderful gifts you could ever have.”

MVES and fellow Alabaster school Creek View Elementary kicked off the Liberty Learning Foundation’s Super Citizen program on Jan. 8, launching a multi-week mission to honor the community’s heroes.

During the kickoff, the foundation’s Libby Liberty portrayed a miniature version of New York City’s Statue of Liberty and explained the history behind the national landmark.

“About 4 million people come to visit me each year. That’s a lot of selfies,” Libby told students before taking a selfie with the kids.

Students helped Libby to demonstrate the enormous size of the statue in New York, showcasing the statue’s 3-foot mouth, 4-and-a-half-foot nose, 8-foot finger and size 879 shoe. From pedestal to torch, the Statue of Liberty is taller than the length of a football field, she said.

MVES students Jayla Moss, Bella Blake, Stephany Rivera, Kortney Carter, Kaelyn Smith, Olivia Greene, A’leah Variste, Rafita Pineda, Meadow Thomas, Jazmine Summerlin and Anderius Olds all helped Libby during the school’s assembly.

Through the Super Citizen program, each second-grade class in the school will learn the history behind America’s freedoms, and will select local heroes to honor at the end of the program.

In the past, Alabaster students have selected individuals such as teachers, principals, local military veterans and police officers as recipients of the Super Citizen designation. Those selected this year will receive a pin modeled after the Statue of Liberty’s torch.

“All of you are already super citizens,” MVES Principal Rachea Simms told the students. “Through this, you are going to learn great things to be even better.”