The Student Veterans of America will host a fundraiser followed by a ceremony to honor veterans tonight.
Andrew Hall, president of the Student Veterans of America, said the doughnut sale will take place between 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Brickyard and outside the Free Expression Tunnel, regardless of weather.
“We will be raising money to send care packages to the North Carolina National Guard unit who will be deployed over Christmas,” Hall said. “They are going to be gone this Christmas and it sucks to be over there alone without your family.”
Amanda Migliaccio, a sophomore in social work, said she was looking forward to contributing to the cause by purchasing goods at the sale.
“I really appreciate our veterans and what they do for us because without them we would not be as strong of a country as we are today,” Migliaccio said. “I will definitely stop by their fundraiser tomorrow because they deserve all of our support.”
Along with the doughnuts, the fundraiser asks for students to write a thank you card to members of the unit, Hall said.
“Thank you cards are a great thing because they do not cost anything but a minute of your time,” Hall said. “It is nice to get a card from someone, especially a handwritten, personalized token of their appreciation for your service.”
The organization, Hall said, is active throughout the year, advocating for veterans.
“Part of the organization is trying to do one or two service projects a semester. This is a biggest project of this semester,” Hall said. “We are mainly an advocate program for veteran affairs and veterans rights, making sure everything is going smoothly and going the way it should for veterans. Last semester, getting PE credits for military training, like basic training, was pushed through.”
Hall said that he along with Thomas Stafford, vice chancellor of student affairs, and representative Grier Martin will speak at the ceremony.
“The ceremony will be at 5:15 p.m. downstairs in the main lobby of Riddick and will just be a Veterans Day ceremony,” Hall said. “I am going to speak on being a student veteran and Dr. Stafford and Grier Martin, who are both veterans, will speak.”
Jason Lindsay, founder and adviser for the Student Veterans Association, said the event will be informative and important for students to attend.
“It is going to be an event where you will understand the history behind veterans and what veteran actually stands for,” Lindsay said. “It is a good opportunity for people to come out and remember the sacrifices that people have made who have served.”
According to Hall, the ceremony will be an excellent opportunity to publicize the organization and the existence of student veterans on campus.
“One of the reasons we want to do this ceremony is it allows us to publicize veterans today and to show that there are student veterans on campus,” Hall said.
Gathering a group of student veterans is a challenge, Hall said, because of their diversity.
“It is easy to organize a group of journalism students or a group of engineers because you see them everyday and they have classes everyday, but veterans are all unique,” Hall said.
“From different skin colors, all different sizes, all different majors, there are just not defining features. It is hard to pass someone on the street and say ‘Hey, you are a veteran.'”
Lindsay said the ceremony will highlight the specific group of students.
“I think it is going to be a great event for everyone who can attend, especially with the amount of students that are coming back from Iraq with the new G.I. bill,” Lindsay said. “It will be enlightening for everyone to see how many student veterans there are.”
