NICC Calmar fund drive raises enough money to send eight veterans to Washington, D.C.

A fund drive organized by NICC Calmar, the Vet2Vet Peer Mentoring Program on the Calmar campus, the Office of Disability Services and the Calmar-area community has generated enough funds to send eight NICC student veterans on a trip to Washington, D.C., and Gettysburg on September 17th--23rd.
 
A donation of $2000 from The Depot Outlet in Decorah put fundraising goals over the top.  In addition to The Depot Outlet's donation, NICC volunteers coordinated a variety of fundraising events this year to make the trip possible. Events, donors and activities included a Valentine's Day Carnation Sale, a raffle, donations from Turkey Valley signers and Dave Funk's vintage cigar box plants, a 10 percent Day at Culvers in Decorah, Girl Scout Troop 75 from Ridgeway, which sold May baskets and volunteer concessions at the Spillville Fireworks Show. The donations also include shirts to wear at the laying of the wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers from the NICC Board of Trustees.  In all, the fundraising campaign raised over $9,000.

The NICC student veterans will take tours and enjoy an overnight stay in the U.S. Civil War's historic battleground town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, then will visit the nation's capital and its Korean War, Lincoln and Vietnam Memorial monuments;visit Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, visit to the Iwo Jima Memorials, the Washington Monument, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and museums that document the accomplishments of the U.S. Navy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).