CSM Honors Heroes for Veterans Day
Posted for College of Southern Maryland
Pax III
By Jay Friess
This morning at 10 a.m., the College of Southern Maryland’s Veteran’s Affairs Office is hosting an event in honor of Veterans Day. The event – The Reading of Our Fallen: The Fight Continues – will involve the reading of names of men and women who lost their lives throughout all conflicts from the birth of the United States to today.
CSM is one of 600 reading locations across the country, with each location reading up to 1,750 names. The event is one of the final pieces of CSM’s Support our Heroes Campaign, a two-month effort to publicize and raise money for its programs that provide financial assistance to veterans transitioning to civilian life as well as those students who are seeking degrees in criminal justice, emergency medical services, fire science technology or homeland security.
“A lot of it is helping our heroes find employment or improve their employment,” said Dr. Sue Subocz, interim vice president of academic affairs for the college. Part of her role is talking with local military contractors to identify the kinds of skills being sought in the Southern Maryland region.
CSM listens to the needs of the regional military contracting community and then aids military veterans’ transition from their military careers into civilian jobs, helping them receive academic credit for their prior training.
“The number of military faculty we have here really help with that,” Dr. Subocz, a Coast Guard veteran, said, adding that the school enjoys a large percentage of veterans in both the faculty and the student body. “We do serve one of the highest veteran populations in the state. … We really do have a lot of staff and faculty who have served. We really do understand the lifestyle these folks lead.”
“What I’d like to highlight are the veterans who are teaching and giving back to the community,” said Dr. Ricky Godbolt, a 21-year Army veteran and director of CSM’s Center for Trades and Energy Training. “At the College of Southern Maryland, we’re recognizing heroes.”
“One of the reasons I stay connected to CSM is because of events like this,” said Glen Ives, former commander of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, and now a CSM Foundation director and president of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance, of the CSM Supports our Heroes campaign. Ives said he is very supportive of “anything that supports our veterans, coming off of two wars. … We have needs in our community that really match up to these skill sets.”
Starting on Sept. 11 and continuing until Veterans Day, the Support our Heroes program is raising money for veteran student aid by partnering with regional Papa John’s pizza franchises. According to John Kreuter, manager of the Papa John’s store in Leonardtown, all three regional franchisees agreed to participate in the program. All stores in Southern Maryland have set out collection boxes for donations and offered a combo deal for a large, one-topping pizza and a two-liter soda for $10.99. A dollar of the sale of each deal goes to the Heroes program.
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Michelle Goodwin, vice president of Advancement, said the Support the Heroes campaign also has an outreach component, raising awareness about the college’s veteran assistance. The program began on Sept. 11 with a ceremony in La Plata dedicated to the heroes of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Since then, Goodwin said, “We participated in a poker run with [St. Mary’s County] Commissioner Dan Morris … and we’ll participate in the [Leonardtown Veterans Day] parade on Nov. 11.”
Additionally, CSM will honor veterans during its Ward Virts Concert Series at 3 p.m., Nov. 11 at the Prince Frederick Campus, featuring clarinetist Takako Mato, flutist Lucy Snell and pianist Stephen Johnson. Snell spent 30 years performing in the United States Air Force Band, where she played flute, alto flute, bass flute and piccolo in the Concert Band, Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Trio. Admission is free and seating is open but limited. Contact 443-550-6011, [email protected] or www.csmd.edu/Arts.
Today’s “Reading of Our Fallen” will be from 10 a.m. to noon, at the La Plata Campus, Learning Resources (LR) Center.
For information on Veterans Educational Benefits at CSM, click here. For information on the Heroes campaign, click here.
