Calling on Members for the Armed Forces Club

Are you a veteran? How about a new member of the Armed Forces? Or just someone who wants to learn about military life? Then the following club on campus is for you.

The Armed Forces Club is small now, but it has the potential to transform into a large camaraderie of military service members and civilians at HVCC.

According to Carrie Farley, advisor of the club, there are 600 veterans on campus in the fall, spring and summer semesters. The group’s primary goal is to be available for any veterans on campus. The club’s brochure also states that they want to “supply information and assistance that will enable veterans to get the maximum use of relevant educational, vocational and medical benefits” and “Share specific veteran experiences that will facilitate social relationships and camaraderie” as well as “Educate the public, regarding veteran issues…” and “Facilitate the participation of members in other school activities and clubs.”

The Armed Forces Club will be hosting three club activities this semester. The first event will be on Veterans Day (November 11) and will begin with a flag raising ceremony at 7:30 a.m. They will pray for the soldiers, pay their respects and salute the flag. According to Farley, “we haven’t had a flag raising ceremony since the 80s.” They hope for a large group of people to show up.

The second activity is a tradition that Farley has been taking part in for the last three years. It is set around Christmas time when boxes are set out in which individuals may place cards written for our troops to be sent to them as tokens of our gratitude. It can be something as creative as one would like it to be. Some ladies put lip gloss on and kiss their cards to let our military service members know that they are doing a good job of protecting our freedom.

The third activity is the sending of supplies to injured, disconnected soldiers. These injured soldiers don’t receive basic supplies such as toothbrushes, underwear and dry clothes from our government or the country in which they’re stationed.

The reason the club will carry on the practice of supporting our service members is, as Farley put it, “to never let history repeat itself.” For those who may be interested, the next meeting for Armed Forces Club will be this Monday at 2 p.m. in BRN 213 and for the rest of the year it will be every first and third Monday at the same time and place. If you are on the timid side, they also have a Facebook page.