Royals Honor Veterans Day Through Service, Reflection, Remembrance

By Cassidy Lowman ’27, Student Correspondent

As Veterans Day approaches, The University of Scranton prepares for a day of service and remembrance, to honor and show appreciation for veterans both on campus and in the community.

The University’s ROTC Color Guard teams will be supporting ceremonies throughout the region for Veterans Day. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Kyle A. Surridge, professor of Military Science, said presenting the colors at a ceremony is a responsibility his cadets take seriously.

“It gives them an opportunity to represent the Army, our ROTC program and the University while honoring the men and women who served before them,” Surridge said. “They’re preparing to become Army officers themselves, and Veterans Day gives them an opportunity to recognize the generations of service members whose footsteps they’ll soon be following.”

The Color Guard will present the colors at events at King’s College, East Stroudsburg University and a local American Legion post.

On campus, the University will host its annual Veterans Day Prayer Service on Nov. 11 at noon in the Veterans and ROTC Lounge in Hyland Hall. The service, organized through a collaboration among Campus Ministry, the Student Veterans Organization (SVO) and the ROTC program, honors and remembers those who have served in the military.

Surridge will be the event’s guest speaker. During his reflection, he will discuss the people behind military service and the sacrifices that come with it. Veterans Day is about honoring those who served, he said, but it is also important to recognize the families who serve alongside them.  

“Recognizing the spouses who pack up their lives every few years and make another unfamiliar place feel like home. The kids who leave their friends, change schools and start over again and the families who spend important moments apart,” Surridge said. “When we recognize a veteran, I think we should also recognize the people who stood behind them and made that service possible.”

This year marks Barbara King’s fifth year celebrating Veterans Day among colleagues and students at the prayer service. King, the University’s student life coordinator, said she enjoys seeing the different campus organizations participate together and the personal connection the guest speaker’s reflection brings to the service.

“Veterans sacrifice so much, and it’s one of the ways we can celebrate and honor them,” King said. “Most of us on this campus have friends and family members who are veterans and pausing for a moment to celebrate them is important.”

Get Involved on Veterans Day

With several other campus events happening next week, there is no shortage of ways for members of the Scranton community to get involved and honor Veterans Day.

• SVO is working with Paul Pearson, professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering, and his family to host a campuswide sock drive for local veterans residing at St. Francis Commons. Donation bins are located on the first floor of Hyland Hall, the second floor of the DeNaples Center and outside Loyola Science Center, room 211.
  
  
• SVO is also collaborating with the Center for Service and Social Justice's (CSSJ) We Care Meal Program to prepare meals for local veterans on Nov. 21 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
  
  
• The Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service (CEEPS) will present Col. Mark Volk, a double alumni of the University, with the David Wenzel Award for Public Service at the Royals Remember 9/11 event. Volk was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists crashed a plane beneath his office. He will discuss his experience, for which he received the Army’s Soldier Medal. All are welcome to attend the event on Nov. 11 at 5:30 p.m. in LSC 133.