The Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) is the nation’s premier non-profit for connecting veterans with their fellow Americans through inspiring stories of service. We’re the place where veterans can share what they’ve seen and done—and where everyone can listen and learn.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Pittsburgh Veterans Day Breakfast
Wednesday, November 11, 2026 | 8:00–10:00 AM
Duquesne University Student Union Ballroom | Pittsburgh, PA
Join hundreds of veterans, family members, friends, and members of the community for the 28th Annual Pittsburgh Veterans Day Breakfast, the largest Veterans Day breakfast in Pennsylvania.
For the first time, the Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) and Veterans Leadership Program (VLP) are joining together to host this great Pittsburgh tradition.
This year’s keynote speaker is Colonel Krista L. Bartolomucci, a Greensburg native and Duquesne University graduate who currently commands the U.S. Army Claims Service at Fort Meade, Maryland. A career Army officer and Judge Advocate with more than 20 years of service, COL Bartolomucci has held leadership assignments across the United States and overseas, including Afghanistan and Poland.
We’ll also welcome Major General John R. Pippy, Pennsylvania’s Adjutant General and head of the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. A West Point graduate and veteran of two deployments to the Middle East, MG Pippy commands the Pennsylvania National Guard and oversees the Commonwealth’s veterans programs. He previously served 16 years in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
The morning will include breakfast, veterans’ stories, special guests, fellowship, and a Veterans Resource Fair connecting veterans and their families with organizations and services from across the region.
Veterans, family members, and members of the public are all welcome.
Veterans Day is a day to honor those who served, but this breakfast has always been about more than ceremony. It is about bringing veterans together, hearing their stories, connecting people with one another, and strengthening Pittsburgh’s veterans community.
This year, proceeds from the breakfast will benefit the Veterans Breakfast Club and Veterans Leadership Program, two Pittsburgh organizations dedicated to serving veterans and building stronger communities around them.
Tickets
Tickets have been reduced in price this year to $20 to encourage as many veterans, families, and community members as possible to attend. Register here.
A Pittsburgh Veterans Day Tradition Since 1998
The Pittsburgh Veterans Day Breakfast began on Veterans Day in 1998, when Vietnam veterans Tony Accamando, T.J. McGarvey, Dan Pulz, George D’Angelo and others with the newly formed Friends of Danang gathered supporters at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center. Their immediate purpose was charitable: Friends of Danang was raising money for humanitarian work in Vietnam, including projects benefiting children, schools, and communities in and around Danang.
That first breakfast started an annual tradition that grew into the largest Veterans Day events in Pennsylvania. Over the years, thousands have come to the event not simply for breakfast, but for camaraderie, recognition, and a chance to support good work in the veterans community.
The breakfast also became increasingly collaborative. Friends of Danang generously opened the event to other organizations and causes, including the Veterans Leadership Program, Shepherd’s Heart Veterans Home, the Duquesne University veterans scholarship program, World Vision International, and later Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans.
The Veterans Breakfast Club has been part of this tradition for the past 15 years. In 2011, the VBC started holding a WWII veterans’ storytelling event at the breakfast. VBC Executive Director Todd DePastino has served as the event emcee for the past several years.
This year, for the first time, the Veterans Breakfast Club and Veterans Leadership Program are partnering to host the Pittsburgh Veterans Day Breakfast, with proceeds benefiting both organizations.
We are grateful to Tony Accamando and Friends of Danang for creating this remarkable Pittsburgh institution and for sharing it so generously over the years. VBC and VLP are proud to carry it forward.
Our goal is simple: keep the tradition, broaden the community, and make Veterans Day a morning when veterans from every generation can come together to share stories, find resources, connect with community and celebrate their service.
Our Speakers
We’re pleased to welcome two distinguished Army leaders to the 28th Annual Pittsburgh Veterans Day Breakfast on Wednesday, November 11, at Duquesne University.
Our keynote speaker will be Colonel Krista L. Bartolomucci, a native of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, who currently commands the U.S. Army Claims Service at Fort Meade, Maryland. COL Bartolomucci began her military career as an Army Reserve public affairs soldier before earning an ROTC scholarship at the University of Pittsburgh and receiving her commission in 2002. She later became an Army Judge Advocate, serving in a wide range of legal and leadership assignments, including deployments and assignments in Afghanistan and Poland. A graduate of Duquesne University, she brings more than two decades of military service and leadership experience back to her home region.
We’ll also hear from Major General John R. Pippy, Pennsylvania’s Adjutant General and head of the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. A West Point graduate and veteran of two deployments to the Middle East, MG Pippy commands nearly 18,000 Pennsylvania Army and Air National Guard members and oversees programs serving the Commonwealth’s nearly 700,000 veterans. A Western Pennsylvania native, he also served 16 years in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, first in the House of Representatives and then in the State Senate.
Join us as we recognize the service of veterans from every generation, hear their stories, and bring Pittsburgh’s veterans community together for this special Veterans Day tradition.
More Than a Breakfast: Veterans Resource Fair
We also want the 2026 Pittsburgh Veterans Day Breakfast to be a place where veterans can find useful information and make connections.
Organizations serving veterans and military families will be invited to participate in a Veterans Resource Fair at Duquesne University. Veterans will be able to meet representatives from organizations working in areas such as health care, benefits, employment, housing, education, legal assistance, family services, recreation, and other veteran programs.
VBC has hosted similar large veterans resource gatherings in the past, and we want to bring that same spirit to Veterans Day: one room, hundreds of veterans, and many of the organizations that serve them gathered in one place.
Parking
Convenient parking is available at the Forbes Avenue Garage, directly across from the Student Union.
Forbes Avenue Garage
1180 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (click for directions)
Sponsorship Opportunities:
2026 Pittsburgh Veterans Day Breakfast Sponsorships
Thank you to our Sponsors!
Questions? JoAnn@veteransbreakfastclub.org or call 412-623-9029.
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special Veterans Day evening of food, fellowship, and storytelling at Saints John & Paul Church in Sewickley.
We’ll gather from 6:00–7:00pm for heavy hors d’oeuvres, beer, wine, and conversation, followed at 7:00pm by a Veterans Breakfast Club storytelling program featuring veterans sharing their experiences of military service.
As always with the Veterans Breakfast Club, the emphasis will be on the stories: what veterans experienced, what they remember, and what they want others to understand about their service. Veterans of all eras, their families, and members of the community are welcome.
The event is free of charge, courtesy of the Saints John & Paul Veterans Committee.
Reservations are required. RSVP by calling 412-623-9029 or emailing JoAnn@veteransbreakfastclub.org.
Directions
Saints John & Paul is located at 2586 Wexford Bayne Road, Sewickley, PA 15143, near the Wexford/Franklin Park area. The event will be held in the Cardinal DiNardo Center (CDC) on the Saints John & Paul campus. Once you enter the church campus from Wexford Bayne Road, follow signs for the Cardinal DiNardo Center and event parking.
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Everyone is always welcome.
The Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) is the nation’s premier non-profit for connecting veterans with their fellow Americans through inspiring stories of service.
Our goal is to build a nation that understands and values the experiences of our military veterans so that every day is Veterans Day.
We do this by bringing together–in-person and online–men and women from all walks of life, all ages and eras, and every branch of service to talk about what they’ve seen and done. We want to hear how people’s military service has shaped them. “Every Veteran Has a Story” is our slogan. We want to hear every one.
We share the stories we hear in our weekly VBC Bulletin email newsletter and our quarterly VBC Magazine. We also record a weekly podcast, The Scuttlebutt, about military culture from the people who lived it.
We do all this because we believe the best way to thank a Veteran is to listen.
Listening is what the VBC has been doing for the past 15 years, when we held our first small event outside of Pittsburgh. Since then, we’ve held over 1,000 programs in-person and online and have welcomed over 20,000 different people at our events, Veterans and non-Veterans coming together to listen.
We value every veteran’s experience, no matter who they are or when or how they served. We’ve seen up close the power of storytelling, as the memories shared at VBC events connect, heal, educate, and inspire an ever-expanding circle of listeners.
THE VETERANS HISTORY PROJECT
Preserving veterans’ stories so that this living history is never forgotten.
We pair passionate VBC volunteers with military veterans for one-on-one oral history interviews over Zoom. If you are a veteran, or you know a veteran, who would be interested in sharing his or her story with us, let us know. If you are someone interested in conducting these interviews, please reach out!
At any given event, you might hear from the newest members of Space Force to a 101-year-old World War II veteran.
We’ve welcomed Tin Can Sailors and Montford Point Marines, Vietnam Sky Soldiers and Cold War intelligence officers. We’ve heard stories from the Horn of Africa to Antarctica, the Bering Sea to Diego Garcia, and all points in between.
LORAN Coast Guardsmen and Radar Station Airmen have told us about serving in some of the most remote places on earth.
Korean War veterans have borne witness to their “forgotten war.”
Other “forgotten warriors” shared their memories of Beirut, Grenada, and Mogadishu.
Some of the first women authorized for combat shared stories of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of the Purple Hearts they received.
