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Just days before the 2025-26 school year, Fairfax County Public Schools welcomed new and returning military-connected families with its first barbecue designed to help them build relationships and find support.
The event at Mount Vernon High School brought families together for dinner, student-led activities and access to resources from the FCPS Office of Family and School Partnerships.
For Mount Vernon senior Audrey Ortiz-Peterson, the challenges facing newly arrived students are deeply familiar. The daughter of military parents has attended eight schools since first grade, moving from New Mexico to Alaska, Alabama, Florida and Virginia.
“It’s pretty emotional because you leave your friends and everything you’ve known for the past year or two, and you have to completely make new friends or build a new life,” Audrey said.
She added that those moves also made her more resilient, strengthened her relationships with family and old friends, and gave her opportunities to experience new places.
Audrey now leads Mount Vernon’s Purple Team, which organizes activities for military-connected students throughout the school year. Its members joined other student volunteers in greeting families and running games at the barbecue.
Younger children could color and make bracelets, while older students played cornhole and football in the gym. Mission BBQ, Starbucks, the Fort Belvoir Commissary and Educate Fairfax sponsored the food and refreshments.
Katie Server, FCPS family partnership specialist for military-connected youth and families, said approximately 13,500 students in the school division have military ties.
“We’re bringing them together so that they can connect with one another, celebrate their military culture, and just feel welcome as we start the school year,” Server said.
New arrivals find support
U.S. Army Maj. Andrew Durfee attended after moving his family from a base in New Jersey to Northern Virginia only two weeks before school began. With children entering daycare and the school system, he described the event as a “soft landing” at their new duty station.
Durfee said military children face the daunting experience of repeatedly leaving friends, relatives and familiar places. The welcome made him more confident that his children would be supported, he said.
Kimberly Hartford had recently been reassigned from a Texas base to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Her daughters were preparing to attend Fort Belvoir Elementary School and Mount Vernon High School.
Hartford said staff members at the barbecue were welcoming, informative and prepared to answer families’ questions. That readiness helped her feel more comfortable about what her children would experience at school.
Purple Star expansion planned
Mount Vernon High School is a Distinguished Purple Star School, a designation recognizing its commitment to military-connected families.
FCPS had 96 Purple Star Schools at the time of the event and planned for more than 50 additional schools to apply the following month. The division’s goal is to earn the designation for all 199 of its schools by fall 2026.
From the Purple Team’s table, Audrey offered newly arriving military-connected students advice drawn from years of starting over.
“Stay open-minded, stay resilient, you never know what’s going to happen,” she said. “Try everything the school has to offer. Definitely put yourself out there.”