Rio Hondo College is celebrating Veterans Day with a week full of activities in the lower quad, adjacent to the Veteran Memorial from Nov. 7-10. The four day event is scheduled to have an array of activities, including a twenty-two push challenge that aims to promote awareness to veteran suicide, a free barbeque lunch on the first day, a rolling Wall of Courage with photos of veterans that attended Rio Hondo, a fundraiser for a veterans food bank hosted by the Veterans Club, a canned food drive and a Note of Thanks, where students write and post letter of gratitude on the Wall of Courage.

Prior to the speeches commemorating veterans, the National Anthem was sung by students from the theatre and fine arts program.

The opening speaker and organizer of the week long celebration was Matthew Keel, president of the veterans club. He was followed by Teresa Dreyfuss, Rio Hondo college president; Mary Ann Pacheco, president of the board of trustees; JoAnna Schilling, interim vice president of academic affairs; and Don Mason, associate dean of academic affairs of public safety.

Dreyfuss advised the students populace to participate in the planned activities throughout the week to show their support and thanks to their fellow students that are veterans.

“I encourage our campus community to write a thank you note to veterans and post it to the rolling Wall of Courage,” said Dreyfuss.   

Pacheco and Mason both highlighted veterans as a valuable minority that should be offered special resources when it comes to education. Mason spoke of the Veterans Resource Center as a fine tool to assist veterans and relatives of veterans in succeeding their educational goals. Mason also encouraged student veterans to be active in the school community and voice any concerns or ideas.

He referred Robert Diaz’s, former president of the veterans club, proposal to have a monument on campus dedicated to former service members as an example of veteran-community relations.     

Most of those in attendance had relatives in the military or were veterans themselves. The military members in the audience enthusiastically sounded off when Mason called upon specific branches of the military.   

After the commemoration concluded, Mason took off his suit jacket and led the twenty-two push up challenge. The participants, most of them former military members, formed a circle around him and pushed out on his count. He had them do an extra three push ups for the prisoners of war, the missing in action, and those killed in the line of duty.

The push up challenge promotes awareness to the prevalent rate of suicide as a result of untreated posttraumatic stress disorder in the veteran community.

“Currently there are roughly 22 veterans who commit suicide a day,” according to a sign post at the event. “The main goal was to reach 22 million push ups nationwide. We have reached that goal but continue to push until 22 suicides a day turns into zero suicides a day.”

The push up challenge will occur every morning of the event at 11 a.m and will be posted on social media.

After completing the challenge, Mason explained that he was asked to speak at the opening day because of an article he coauthored with Ygnacio Flores and Tracy Rickman, two other administrators and veterans, titled “Community Colleges: Serving Those that Served.” Their article highlighted the services that colleges, specifically Rio Hondo, has to offer veterans.   

“We as a campus community need to embrace, assist and provide the resources veterans need when they return from active duty,” said Mason.

A detailed itinerary of the remaining event activities can be found on the Rio Hondo page.