22nd Annual Veterans Breakfast Will Virtually Honor Those Who Served
Registration is open for the 22nd Annual Veterans celebration hosted by the Office for Military and Veteran Students at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov.11. This year’s event is being held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Admission is free, but individuals are welcome to make a monetary donation.
“During this unprecedented year, Veterans Day stands as a powerful reminder of our founding national ideal, ‘E Pluribus Unum,’ or ‘Out of Many, One,’” said Don Accamando, director of the Office for Military and Veteran Students. “Our virtual Veterans Day program will honor this motto by bringing our region together to celebrate the diversity of our veterans and military community. Join us as we thank those who’ve served our country to secure America’s promise of liberty and justice for all.”
Accamando will serve as the event emcee and kick off the event, which will feature the posting of Colors by the Duquesne University Army ROTC Color Guard and the singing of the National Anthem by music school student Dominique Theodore. The Rev. Bill Christy, C.S.Sp., director of Spiritan Campus Ministry and University chaplain, will offer the Invocation.
University President Ken Gormley will give welcoming remarks, and Dr. Ben Stahl, chairman of the Veterans Leadership Program, will speak briefly and introduce keynote speaker H. Lamont Gourdine, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and member of the Academy Football team. A nationally recognized speaker, he has flown the CH-46 Sea Knight and the MH-60 Sierra Knight Hawk helicopters in support of Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.
Proceeds will benefit the five different partners of the Veterans Breakfast:
- The Duquesne University Student Veterans Scholarship Fund
- The Veterans Leadership Program of Western PA
- The Veterans Breakfast Club
- Shepherds Heart Fellowship and Veterans Home
- The Friends of DaNang.