Veterans Day services were held across Southwest Montana Wednesday to salute troops and veterans.

In Butte, dozens gathered for a ceremony at Stodden Park.  

In Anaconda, veterans were in for a real treat as students at Fred Moodry Middle School cooked breakfast for their heroes.

"Student council is involved in Veterans Day just because it's a very important thing to us. We just want to show our appreciation for what they did for us,” student council president Taylor Flynn said.

Following breakfast, students gathered in the auditorium for a Veterans Day program featuring a color guard and a special movie from the Department of Defense on military honors.

Dave McLean of American Legion Post 21 in Anaconda said the group provide military honors for approximately 60 funerals a year as a result of the large number of veterans that served in World War II.  The program even included a mock funeral.

This is a school, so we can't bring actual rifles in here and we can't shoot our blanks, but we want students to get an idea what a beautiful ceremony it is and hopefully they won't have to see it in person for a father, grandfather or uncle, but they'll have an idea of what we do to respect and honor our fallen heroes,” McLean said.

Anaconda’s Veteran's Day events wrapped up with a dinner at the Legion Hall Wednesday evening.

Veterans Day was also observed in Whitehall.

A lot of preparation went into a special Veterans Day ceremony at Whitehall High School. It had all the makings of a patriotic celebration of our men and women in service both past and present.

"Throughout the nation today, there's probably a lot of ceremonies similar to this going on and I think that any time we can remember what's going on throughout the world in dedication of our men and women that are serving right now and those who have served, I think it's a good thing," U.S. Army veteran Tom Harrington said.

The Butte Exchange Club donated a freedom shrine to the Whitehall community. The freedom shrine displays the likenesses of America's most famous documents. The club had donated shrines to Butte High, East Middle and the MAC Center.

Butte Exchange Club President Brooks Coombe was thrilled to give one more.

“I just always thought that Whitehall would be a neat place to put one and of course as you can see, they have a beautiful wall to show it on. So, I couldn't think of a better day to do it than Veteran's Day and it's a club effort and it's really kind of a neat thing,” Coombe said.

The Exchange Club also gave out $100 to two students who wrote essays about the importance of the shrine.

- Laurel Staples and Shane Ewing reporting for KXLF in Butte