Salt Lake Community College will join schools and scholars from around the nation for Remembrance Day National Roll Call. The event will take place on Veterans Day, November 11, to honor American servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan during the past decade.
According to a press release, more than 140 schools will participate in the event. Remembrance Day National Roll Call will begin at 8:00 a.m. at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus Student Center flag pole. West High School Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) Navy cadets will conduct a flag ceremony to begin 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,” said Lt. Col. (Ret) Brett Morris, National Roll Call coordinator and associate director of Veteran Affairs at Eastern Kentucky University in the press release.
At 8:30 a.m., a roll call will begin at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus Student Event Center. Volunteers of each participating group around the country will read the names of the more than 6,200 casualties of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (re-named New Dawn).
The names will be read in chronological order in terms of when lives were lost. It is anticipated that it will take nearly eight hours to read all of the names.
“The reading of individual names is very poignant because it emphasizes the significance of each and every life lost,” Morris said. “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.”
SLCC will have 35 volunteer readers. Each will read 180 or more names. Additional volunteers will greet guests and help set up the event and clean up when it is finished.
The event is sponsored nationally by the Veterans Knowledge Community (VKC) of NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. VKC advocates for and assists veteran students transitioning to college and helps them be successful.
According to the 2010 census data, there are 151,414 veterans currently reside in Utah.
Students are not required to claim veteran status but of those self-reported, 1200 veterans attend school at Salt Lake Community College according to the SLCC Veterans Center.
The event is open for all to attend. Many volunteers are veterans and their family members. Additional volunteers are welcome.
Contact Darlene Head at 801-957-3833 or email Darlene.head@slcc.edu for more information.
