HAMMOND, Ind. — A Purdue University Calumet Veterans Day Celebration Monday, Nov. 11 will feature assembly of care packages for military personnel and keynote remarks by an executive of the VA Center for Women Veterans.
Co-sponsored by Fifth Third Bank and the university’s From Boots to Books: Veterans and Student Service Members Academic Support Program, the Purdue Calumet observance begins with an 8 a.m. flag raising ceremony outside the west entrance of Lawshe Hall. (Woodmar Avenue north of 173rd Street).
Subsequently, Purdue Calumet students, staff members and Fifth Third Bank employee volunteers will gather in the Student Union & Library concourse to prepare more than 500 care packages of food items and toiletries for military personnel serving abroad. Fifth Third Bank is providing the items.
“Every single person that lives in the United States benefits from the hard work, commitment and sacrifice of our nation’s soldiers,” Fifth Third Bank of Northwest Indiana Market Executive Craig Pratt said. “The care package project is intended to bring together employees in the spirit of honoring those who serve and as a way of demonstrating our gratitude to those who are overseas today protecting our interests.”
Associate Director of the VA Center for Women Veterans Betty Moseley Brown will deliver the keynote address at a 10 a.m. Convocation in Alumni Hall of the Student Union & Library. Based in Washington, D.C., the respected veterans advocate served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1978 to 1992.
“Any individual who attends this event will leave with a better understanding that we are all part of the actions taken on behalf of our country’s values,” Purdue Calumet From Boots to Books Assistant Director Akili Shakur said. “Here in northwest Indiana, we have sacrificed with lives given in service for the freedoms enjoyed by past, current and future generations.”
Purdue Calumet Chancellor Thomas Keon and Fifth Third Bank’s Pratt, a U.S. Air Force veteran and Purdue Calumet alumnus, will welcome Convocation attendees. The Hammond Academy of the Performing Arts Combined Concert Band will perform special musical selections.
“This is an observance that attempts to bridge all wars,” Shakur said. “No one war has solved the world’s problems, and the lives lost in war have affected all of us.”
All Veterans Day Celebration events are free and open to the community. Those who have lost loved ones serving in the United States armed forces will be honored guests. A campus reception will follow the Convocation.
Purdue University Calumet is located three miles east of the Indiana-Illinois state line off Interstate 80/94, one-third mile north on Indianapolis Boulevard to 173rd Street and three blocks east. To attend the Convocation and access free parking at the Student Union & Library, continue east on 173rd Street to the traffic light and turn left/north. More information can be obtained by phoning 219/989-2727.
