By Bobby Winner

April 9 through April 13 saw Kappa Sigma’s annual Military Heroes Week, at Thiel College.

Every year they hold a series of events designed to raise money for The Military Heroes Campaign, which is a charity who benefits homeless veterans and their families.

Kappa Sigma holds this event as well as the See-Saw-a-Thon every year to raise as much money as possible for the Campaign.  The events held this week included a 21-gun salute, a military film screening, a presentation from veteran and Dustin Slomainy ‘18, and a community service day at the American Legion, as well as collecting donations outside of the cafeteria during lunch and dinner all week.

The first event of the week was the annual 21-gun salute held outside of Roth Hall featuring members of Greenville Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3374, a heartfelt introduction and prayer from Makenna Sanders ’21 and Joshua Kenst ’18, respectively.

The second event of Military Heroes Week was a screening of acclaimed film Full Metal Jacket in Stamm Lecture Hall on Tuesday.

The third event of Military Heroes Week was a presentation, on Wednesday, from Slomainy recalling his experiences on tour in Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, and Germany.  His presentation mixed jokes in with his accounts of life and stories from his past.

The final event of Military Heroes Week was an annual community service event for the brothers of Kappa Sigma and anyone else willing to help.  Many students were at the Greenville post of the American Legion, helping do various tasks like cleaning and painting.

“It is a tremendous honor to be able to help the Legion in any way we can,” said Chris Simpson ’18.  “We were encouraged to be here for at least an hour today, but I know many of us, myself included, will be here much longer than that, hoping to help these gentlemen as much as they’ve helped us with their service.”

Sanders, Kappa Sigma’s philanthropy chair oversaw planning this week and had this to say about his experiences this week.  “It is truly an honor to represent the fraternity in this fashion, being able to give back to our veterans, those who have given so much to us to keep us safe is a great thing for me,” he said.  “I would mostly like to thank the gentlemen from the VFW and the American Legion for their support during the events of this week, as well as all veterans everywhere and the brothers and all those who attended the events of this.”

He continued, “It was a lot of work getting this week set up and there were many setbacks, but we were able to do some great things for our veterans, like raising money and helping at the Legion.  We do the events of this week every Spring semester, and there is always the See-Saw-a-Thon in the Fall and we are always accepting donations, the money goes to a great cause and will our veterans.”