For Immediate Release;
Monday, October 31, 2016

Contact:         Christina Butterfield
                        News and Media Relations
                        Galloway, N.J. 08205
                        Christina.Butterfield@stockton.edu
                        (609) 626-3845
                        www.stockton.edu/media

 Galloway, N.J. – Stockton University’s Office of Veteran Affairs will host a series of events on the main Galloway campus on Friday, Nov. 11 in honor of Veterans Day.

Tom O’Donnell, assistant dean of students and Veteran Affairs at Stockton, will welcome the public in front of the Campus Center at 11 a.m. The Stockton University Police will present the colors and Stockapella, Stockton’s acapella group, will sing the National Anthem.

Archbishop de Paulo, of the Old Catholic Confederation, will give the invocation, and representatives from the university will speak, including Paul Garraty, president of Stockton’s Student Veterans Organization (SVO).

Assemblyman Chris Brown, who served in the U.S. Army from 1987-2009, will serve as the keynote speaker.

Lt. Col. Lawrence P. Stawicki, of the United States Marine Corps, will serve as the honored speaker.

The crowd will then move to Independence Plaza, at 11:45 a.m. for a welcome by Stockton’s Dean of Students Pedro Santana.

Wendy Lang, director of Operation College Promise; Jesse Violante, director of Vetwork Outreach; and Robert Sistler of the U.S. Army and an alumnus of the Stockton SVO, will speak.

At 12:15 p.m., the laying of the wreath will take place in the university’s Veterans Park, located adjacent to G-Wing, while Stockton student Brielle Lord plays “Taps.”

Robert Cannon, of the Stockton Student Veteran Advisory Board, and Patrick Cavicchio, a member of the SVO Executive Board, will give remarks.

A luncheon will be held at 12:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Event Room, which will include a presentation of awards and certificates to the Warrior Champion Essay Winners students Brittany Hayes, in first place, and Marissa Luca and Alexis Propovitch, who tied for second place. An open mic session will allow for Veterans Day reflections from the public.

Stockton University was ranked #6 among the best colleges and universities in the nation for veterans by the Military Times’ “Best for Vets: Colleges 2016,” the most comprehensive school-by-school assessment of veteran and military student services and rates of academic achievement.

For more information, visit Stockton.edu/veteranaffairs.

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