Nonprofit that says ‘thank you’ to future vets began in Cherry Hill | Stu Bykofsky

This is about the other 1 percent.

Not the 1 percent who are the tippy-top of the pay-scale pyramid. I mean the 1 percent of high school graduates who volunteer to become the point of the spear, the ones who join the military. They are the young Americans who promise to spend their lives to protect our lives, should it come to that.

Around this time each year, college-bound high school students are getting excited about the collegiate life waiting for them.

There’s excitement, and maybe fear, in the homes of the 150,000 graduating seniors who have enlisted.

Schools do little to honor their call to service, says Dr. Kenneth Hartman, 60, who while on the Cherry Hill school board 10 years ago decided to do something about it.

Before I tell you what he did, let me tell you why.

An internationally known educational consultant who recently was president of Drexel University Online, he joined the ROTC as an undergraduate at Rochester Institute of Technology. His goal was to be an Army officer upon his graduation.

He did that, but why?

His father, Paul, was a Holocaust survivor who was liberated by a soldier. It created within the father a respect for the military.

After the war ended, Paul made it to America as a refugee.

His parents “told me the privilege and freedoms were so unique and precious in America, to never take them for granted,” says Hartman.

He joined the military “to do something for my country,” and served from 1980 to 1989 as a second lieutenant, mostly in armor units.

After his service, he earned a Ph.D. from Penn, and in 2007 was elected to the school board in Cherry Hill, where he lives with his wife, Marti, and where he raised his two adult children.

“Kids who go off to college get bragging rights," says Hartman, "but what about kids going into military service?”

He asked the question, and then answered by creating Our Community Salutes, a nonprofit that uses as its motto “The first to say ‘thank you.’ ”

Its first “thank you” was in 2009 at The Mansion in Voorhees to military-bound students.

Some might think a “thank you” isn’t a big deal. Others think differently. OCS grows every year.

This year more than 30 communities, including four in New Jersey and five in Pennsylvania, will collaborate with OCS to honor 3,000 graduates.

About 100 Philadelphia enlistees and their parents will be treated to dinner May 2 at the Union League by OCS and some UL members who are footing the bill.

Speaking of which, Hartman says he’d like to find some sponsors for the program, or even individual donors, who can reach him through the OCS website.

In addition to “thank you,” each student will get a copy of the Constitution, the document he or she will take an oath to defend.

OCS has an online, virtual community that allows service members and families to communicate. The site also facilitates college planning because service personnel can earn college credits while in service, Hartman tells me.

Thanks to the GI Bill, those who have served “will not only typically graduate from college debt-free, but will enter the workforce with four or more years of meaningful work experience,” he says.

He makes military service seem irresistible, but only a few high school seniors will step forward.

They are the 1 percent who deserve our thanks.