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!
Sponsors
The VBC and the Pittsburgh’s Heinz History Center are holding a special Vietnam Veterans Day 50th Anniversary Event on March 29, 6:00pm to 8:00pm.
The event will be held in-person at the Heinz History Center and will also be available online on Facebook and YouTube
This free Vietnam Veterans Day event will honor and recognize all veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces at any time during the period of November 1, 1955, to May 15, 1975, regardless of duty location.
Non-Veterans are especially welcome to attend and pay tribute to our Vietnam Veterans, hear their stories of service, and thank them for blazing the trail for every serviceman and woman who came after them.
The event will feature refreshments, a social hour, and then a program with special guests, stories, and a pinning ceremony.
Every Vietnam Veteran registered for this event will receive a gift bag as a token of our gratitude for your service.
For those who will be joining us virtually, the gift bag will be shipped to the home address provided.
Register for the event here Register for the event here .
Sponsorship Opportunities Available
We have a range of sponsorships available with speaking opportunities, social media logo placement, and vendor tables and signs. If you have ideas for sponsoring not covered in the information below, let us know.
Welcome Home Gift Bag
Now is your chance to say thank you to a Vietnam Veteran who did not get welcomed home 50 years ago.
Every Vietnam Veteran who attends online or in-person will receive a Welcome Home Gift Bag, either in person or in the mail.
Please consider sponsoring a Welcome Home Box for a Vietnam Veteran for $20. We can include a custom thank you note from you to the veteran.
Just click the button below and add a note that your donation is for a Vietnam Veteran Gift Bag.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war – the invasion of Okinawa—their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled: Former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly twenty men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL.
When the arguments between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal on Christmas Eve, 1944. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as “The Mosquito Bowl.”
Within a matter of months, fifteen of the 64 the players in “The Mosquito Bowl” would be killed at Okinawa, by far the largest number of American athletes ever to die in a single battle. The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave young men, those who survived and those who did not. It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them. It is a story of a far more innocent time in both college athletics and the life of the country. And of the loss of that innocence.
Writing with the style and rigor that won him a Pulitzer Prize and have made his books modern classics, Buzz Bissinger takes us from the playing fields of America’s campuses where boys played at being Marines, to the final time they were allowed to still be boys on that field of dirt and coral, to the darkest and deadliest days that followed at Okinawa.
Veterans Breakfast Club Announces First Event in New Castle Sponsored by The New Castle Rotary Club
Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) will hold its first in-person veterans storytelling breakfast in New Castle on Saturday, April 22, 2023 from 9am-11am. The event will be held at The Villa Banquet Center Medure’s Catering 2500 New Butler Road, New Castle, PA 16101. The event is sponsored by the New Castle Rotary Club and is free of charge and open to the general public.
The event will provide veterans and members of the public the opportunity to listen and share their one-of-a-kind stories, while engaging with other local veterans. There is no cost to attend.
Since 2008, VBC has served the local veteran community in the greater Pittsburgh area, hosting weekly local gatherings for veterans. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, VBC transitioned to virtual programming and announced a national expansion of the organization, opening its programs to veterans around the country and world.
“Our community grew so much during the pandemic, providing a space for more veterans from around the country and world to share their stories and connect with each other,” said Todd DePastino, founder and executive director of VBC. “While we will continue to host virtual programs, we are also thrilled to return to in-person events here in Western Pennsylvania. All veterans have a story to share, and we are honored to offer a platform for our veterans to connect, heal and inspire each other.”
In addition to hosting two in-person events per month, VBC also holds a weekly program online, VBC Happy Hour, and publishes the quarterly VBC Magazine, the weekly VBC Bulletin e-newsletter, and a weekly podcast on military culture, The Scuttlebutt.
RSVPs are required. Please make your reservation by emailing VBC Administrator Betty Karleski at betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org.
About Veterans Breakfast Club
Founded in 2008, Veterans Breakfast Club is a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to creating communities of listening around veterans and their stories to ensure that this living history will never be forgotten. VBC believes that through their work, people will be connected, educated, healed and inspired. Through weekly virtual programming, VBC offers a one-of-a-kind community that brings together veterans, their families and civilians to share, celebrate and preserve veterans’ stories. To learn more and join our community, visit veteransbreakfastclub.org.
