Ridgewood inducts five into Wall of Honor

WEST LAFAYETTE – On Saturday, at Ridgewood's home opening football game, the Generals unveiled their new stadium, but they also inducted five people into their Wall of Honor.

The 2015 4x100 state championship team of Michael Kelley, Zach Donley, Jarrett Art and Billy Bailey were inducted together after winning the first team state championship in school history.

The school also inducted Ray Border, a 1999 graduate from Ridgewood, who died from an IED explosion on Oct. 19, 2011, as the first member of the Veterans Wall.

"All of this, the memorial sign, the plaque will be on the wall. It's something that our family can't thank people enough for," said Craig Border, Ray's father.

Border served in the military for 12 years, his father said. Border, who always helped his family remodel and do construction work, entered as a Seabee, which is somebody who works on many different construction projects.

"When he went into the service, we thought, 'Great, he will be doing what he loves to do,' and he did. He spent many tours overseas building. We will never see some of the things he built overseas," Craig Border said.

He was stationed in Afghanistan twice — the second time, his father said, he knew it was a bit more serious.

"We went to the camp and saw him over there. We got to see some of the guns on the vehicles, so we knew it was a little bit more serious," Craig Border said. "Our family all graduated from Ridgewood, and for them to start this Veterans Wall for Raymond is quite an honor for us."

For the 4x100 team also, this ceremony is an honor.

"It's still pretty crazy knowing that we won state," Donley said. "It's cool to look back on it."

"It's still setting in that we won it. I've always looked at that wall and wanted to be up there, and we finally are," Art said.

cteaguerob@gannett.com

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Twitter:@cj_teague