At the Veterans Breakfast Club,
Stories Unite Us.
Check out our upcoming in-person veterans storytelling event schedule below. All are welcome to join us!
The VBC with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and veteran-owned AE Works is hosting a Veterans OktoberFest Night in Market Square Pittsburgh on Monday, October 7 from 5:30-8:00pm.
This is a FREE event under a giant tent in Market Square as part of the 10-day OktoberFest, from October 3-13.
The event will be live-streamed on Zoom, YouTube, and Facebook, from 6:00pm-7:30pm ET. The Zoom can be joined here at 6:00pm on October 7.
Food will be available for purchase, and EVERY PERSON registered for the event with the Veterans Breakfast Club will receive one free beer, a second at half price, and $5 parking in the Market Square Parking Garage.
At 6:30pm, we’ll hold a one-hour storytelling program featuring Cold War veterans–those who served between 1945-1991–especially in Germany. The program will be livestreamed and will commemorate the 35th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Non-Veterans are especially welcome to attend and pay tribute to our Cold War Veterans and hear their stories of service.
Please plan to join us in-person or online for this special event!
Register for the event here for the in-person experience!
Thank you to our Premier Sponsor, AE Works!
Join us for a FREE VBC breakfast at Ridgecrest Senior Living in McCandless on Thursday, October 10 at 8:30am. Please RSVP for this free breakfast event by calling 412-623-9029 or emailing betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org.
Everyone is welcome, veterans and non-veterans, and the breakfast will be provided for free courtesy of Ridgecrest Senior Living.
We plan our usual fast-moving and wide-ranging program with lots of participation. We’ll have veterans of various ages and branches of service sharing their stories of service.
Breakfast is served at 8:30am. At 9:00am, we start the program. For the next 90 minutes, veterans share slices of their service experience. You never know what you’re going to hear, and there’s always new people with new memories to offer.
RSVP by calling 412-623-9029 or emailing betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org. Please make sure to RSVP for events at least two days in advance. We understand that your schedule can change quickly, but advance notice of attendance always helps us and our venues prepare the program. Thank you!
Thank you to our event sponsors Hope Hospice, Fox Rehab, Ridgecrest Senior Living, Julian Gray Associates, Assisted Living Locators, Simplified Professional Organizing, Concordia Visiting Nurses
Join us for a FREE breakfast with Rocky Bleier at Fort Indiantown Gap on Tuesday, October 15 at 8:30am!
Pittsburgh Steeler and Vietnam Veteran Rocky Bleier will be at the Veterans Breakfast Club to to tell his awe-inspiring story of going to war, coming home, and fighting back to Super Bowl victory.
Breakfast will be served at 8:30am followed by a presentation by Rocky. This event is FREE but registration is required by October 8.
Registration is required for this event by Tuesday, October 8.
You must submit your name, as it appears on your Driver’s License or state ID, with your birthdate.
Questions? betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org or by calling 412-623-9029.
As of Nov. 1, 2023, Fort Indiantown Gap is a controlled-access installation. All visitors who do not have a Department of Defense Common Access Card (CAC), military ID or pre-screened compliant ID must be vetted through the National Crime Information Center Interstate Identification Index (NCIC-III).
Directions: I-81 to Exit 85 (Exit 85B NB) to Rt 934 (Fisher Ave) North. Stop at Main Control Point and show ID. Head north on Fisher Ave to Community Club.
Here is the Google Map location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/m5A9Vi2Y6YSkwu988
Most of us know the outlines of Rocky’s story: son of a Wisconsin tavern owner, all-state athlete in high school, National Champion at Notre Dame, and VERY late round draft pick (417th overall) for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1968.
Rocky makes the team, plays sparingly, then receives his draft notice.
Five months later, he’s in Vietnam, Company C, 4th Battalion (Light), 196th Light Infantry Brigade. On August 20, while on patrol about 60km southwest of Danang, his platoon gets ambushed. A enemy bullet rips into his left thigh. Then, an exploding grenade shreds his lower right leg and foot. Rocky’s war in Vietnam is over.
But his fight had just begun. Doctors reassured Rocky he’s be able to lead a normal life—except for football. Playing again was out of the question.
Out of the blue, he receives a postcard from legendary Steelers owner.
“Rock – the team’s not doing well. We need you. Art Rooney.”
That short note kickstarted a grueling rehabilitation that, in truth, took years. He couldn’t walk without pain and returned to the Steelers woefully underweight.
But he never gave up and ever so slowly climbed the ladder of football success.
1970: works out with the Steelers.
1971: makes the roster.
1972: plays every game.
1974: earns a starting position in the backfield, over five years after being wounded in a Vietnamese rice paddy.
Even without the four Super Bowls that followed, the Rocky Bleier story would be the most inspiring tale of grit in the history of sports.
But those championships made Rocky a household name and introduced millions of Americans to the qualities shaping a hero: commitment, determination, optimism, and humility.
Rocky Bleier has them all and shares what he’s learned from a hard life at war and in football with us.
RSVP by calling 412-623-9029 or emailing betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org.
Thank you to our event sponsors, Forge Health and UPMC for Life!
Join us in Bethel Park, PA, for a VBC storytelling event where you’ll meet a remarkable collection of people, each with a story to tell.
Our breakfast location in Bethel Park, PA, is our largest, where the group can reach over 250 people. Our veteran attendees range from WWII and Korean War through the Post-9/11 era. The program is fast-moving and wide-ranging with lots of participation. Everyone is welcome to join us.
We meet at Christ United Methodist Church (44 Highland Rd, Bethel Park 15102) in a large hall that also serves as a gym. We show photos of veterans on the three screens at the front and interact with as many veterans as we can. You’ll walk in, pick up your name badge, pay $15 if you plan to eat (no cost for those who don’t), and meet others who are there to hear and share the stories. Breakfast is served at 8:30am. At 9:00am, we start the program. For the next 90 minutes, veterans share slices of their service experience. You never know what you’re going to hear, and there’s always new people with new memories to offer.
RSVP by calling 412-623-9029 or emailing betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org. Please make sure to RSVP for events at least two days in advance. We understand that your schedule can change quickly, but advance notice of attendance always helps us and our venues prepare the program. Thank you!
Thank you to our event sponsors Encompass Health, Concordia Bridgeville, and Home Matters!
The Veterans Breakfast Club will hold a special FREE event we’re calling Homefront and Frontlines: Women and the Impact of War at the Heinz History Center on Sunday, October 27 at 2-4pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.
We especially invite women who have been part of the military and veteran community either as veterans themselves or spouses, children, or parents of those who served.
This event featuring the stories of women who have served in the military and as members of military families builds on the Heinz History Center’s latest exhibit, A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh.
There will be light refreshments and a storytelling program.
This a FREE program, but registration is required through the Heinz History Center:
Please let us know you’ll attend by making a reservation at betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org or 412-623-9029.
As part of the event, guests are encouraged to explore the History Center’s A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh exhibition, which showcases the stories of history-making women from Western Pa.
Through more than 300 artifacts, immersive experiences, and striking archival images, A Woman’s Place reveals how these fierce and unflappable women have made Pittsburgh and the world a better place.
The exhibit features rare artifacts like the small handbag carried around the world in 1889 by legendary journalist Nellie Bly and a rare game-worn uniform from the inaugural season of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
A Woman’s Place also highlights the stories of “real life” Rosie the Riveters who worked the mills during World War II and helped inspire the iconic Rosie poster.
Exhibit highlights include:
- Clothing and textiles from the 1830s through today, including the inauguration dress worn by Sophie Masloff – the first and only female mayor of Pittsburgh – and a costume from the National Negro Opera Company
- Original sketches from Peggy Owens Skillen, who helped to create the modern version of the iconic PBS show “Sesame Street”
- Protest posters, buttons, and other objects that tell the story of women’s suffrage and how Pittsburghers like Lucy Kennedy Miller and Winifred Meek Morris fought for the right to vote
- A special section on athletes featuring the Olympic jersey of basketball legend and McKeesport native Swin Cash and Suzie McConnell Serio’s WNBA jersey
- A game-worn uniform and a leather baseball glove used by Betsy Jochum of the South Bend (Ind.) Blue Sox of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
RSVP by calling 412-623-9029 or emailing betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org.
Thank you to our event sponsors Executor Services and Forge Health!
