Hennessey middle and high school students got an up close and personal Oklahoma history lesson Thursday afternoon.

That was during the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum’s presentation that “This Journey of Hope” will carry the 30th anniversary message of the Murrah bombing as “A Day of Darkness — Years of Light,” throughout the state.

They are taking that message and will be traveling to all 77 counties “inspiring students, church groups, civic clubs, individuals, and families to embody the Oklahoma Standard.”

The program included film taken at the bombing site and later when the person responsible for killing 168 men, women and children was found.

Students asked – and staffers answered – several questions about the actual event and later asked to decide on an Oklahoma Standard they were willing “To Stand Up For.”

Their answers included: Kindness, Justice, Peace, Helping Others and Volunteering.

Jeff Zelnicek, a 1981 HHS grad, told students when the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing happened he was a driver at the Edmond Fire Department.

He was on a crew of four that reached the 9:02 a.m. bomb site at 10 a.m. and about 30 minutes later there was another bomb scare, he said.

It turned out to be nothing, he said, then added that “so many people came to help...We never needed anything.”

“People brought gloves, boots, socks, underwear ...that was our Oklahoma standard,” he told students.

“When it turned out to be domestic terrorism, we couldn’t get over it,” Zelnicek said. “We couldn’t believe someone from our own country would do something like that.”

He stressed to students: “If you know something is wrong, say something.”

Zelnicek, who retired in 2020 as a captain with the Edmond Fire Department, also talked to the students about “making good choices and having good values.”

He said he learned how important those traits were from his parents and by working on their family farm.

State Senator Chuck Hall, R-Perry, and State Representative Mike Dobrinski, R-Okeene, also took part in the Kingfisher County event and Mayor Harold Shaw was recognized.

Students were also introduced to these 1995 Hennessey first-responders and special guests at the event: Bert Gritz, then-Hennessey fire chief and Emergency Medical Services director; Tim Riddle, Hennessey firefi ghter; Hennessey EMTs Sharron Schaefer, Jimmy Patocka and David Macy; and a Kingfisher police officer, Ken Davis.

HHS history teacher Marie Parrish was in charge of arranging the program.