Date: Friday, November 11, 2011
Time: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Location: Outdoor Lawson Amphitheater on the Clayton State campus
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: John Shiffert
STA903 Director of University Relations
www.clayton.edu
johnshiffert@clayton.edu
(678) 466-4463
Clayton State to Join in National Veterans Day Event
this Friday
Volunteers Can Register at http://doodle.com/6vf9fwc5qdz9maik
Morrow, Ga., Nov. 9, 2011 -- Following the 10th
anniversary of the Sept. 11 tragedy, Clayton State University has
joined a nationwide grass-roots effort to honor American service
men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and
Afghanistan during the past decade, through the Remembrance Day
National Roll Call.
On Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11, campus and community
volunteers at more than 100 colleges and universities across the
nation will read the names of the 6,200-plus casualties of
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF),
now called Operation New Dawn. To read the names of the fallen,
volunteers should register at: http://doodle.com/6vf9fwc5qdz9maik. Each reader
will read 200 names in 15 minute increments. The reading will take
up to eight hours and will begin at 8 a.m., and end at 4 p.m., at
the outdoor Lawson Amphitheater on the Clayton State campus.
Each campus nationwide participating in Remembrance Day National
Roll Call will organize its own reading of names and will observe
at 11 a.m. PST, 2 p.m. EST, a simultaneous nationwide minute of
silence. Currently, more than 115 schools in 43 states, plus the
District of Columbia, have agreed to participate in the event.
Prior to the reading, Clayton State Vice President of External
Relations and retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Robert L. "Steve"
Stephens will host the opening ceremony at 8 a.m. Associate Dean of
Arts & Sciences Dr. John Campbell will lead the observance of
the minute of silence at 2 p.m. Also featured will be a drill team
competition and demonstration, the veterans gratitude poster and a
flag planter for fallen service members.
The Remembrance Day National Roll Call is sponsored nationally
by the Veterans Knowledge Community of NASPA Student Affairs
Administrators in Higher Education. NASPA is a 12,000-member
association for the advancement, health, and sustainability of the
student affairs professionals. The Veterans Knowledge Community
(VKC) mission is to advocate for best practices to help student
veterans transition to college and succeed. As the National Roll
Call sponsor, the goal of VKC is to have at least one institution
in each of the 50 states participate in the event.
"We wanted to rally campus communities across the nation to send
a powerful message to the troops currently serving that their peers
have not forgotten their sacrifices, or those of the fallen," says
Lt. Col. (Ret) Brett Morris, the National Roll Call coordinator and
a retired army officer and the associate director for veterans
affairs at Eastern Kentucky University. "The reading of individual
names is very poignant because it emphasizes the significance of
each and every life lost.
"Like the names inscribed at the new 9-11 Memorial in New York,
each of the fallen deserve to be remembered for their sacrifice.
There is no effort to raise money or promote individual programs.
The event is simply to honor those who have sacrificed so much on
our behalf."
The readers will announce the names in chronological order. The
Clayton State University Student Veterans Association will
participate in the Clayton State campus activities.
For information about the Clayton State University Roll Call
events contact Shiraz Karaa at shirazkaraa@clayton.edu. For more information
about the National Roll Call effort, contact Morris at remembrancerollcall@gmail.com. Go to www.va.eku.edu/rollcall to see a list of
participating schools. A unit of the University System of Georgia,
Clayton State University is an outstanding comprehensive
metropolitan university located 15 miles southeast of downtown
Atlanta.