Blue Star Families is thrilled to be part of Service Nation's Veteran's Day event.

Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden will join ServiceNation on Veterans Day to launch Mission Servce: Forging a Continuum of Service.  Blue Star Families, Student Veterans of America and military and civilian leaders will celebrate service organizations and the strength they add to our nation.

The event will take place Wednesday, November 11, 2009 from 12noon to 3:30pm EST at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium in the Marvin Center. 

Event details include:

Ceremony (Lisner Auditorium, 2 p.m.):
• Remarks by First Lady Michelle Obama on the importance of both civilian and military service in strengthening our communities and advancing our nation.
• Remarks by Dr. Jill Biden on the importance of offering thanks and service to veterans, military service members, and their families.

• Presentation of the first annual ServiceNation Award for Excellence in Military and Civilian Service to Alma Powell for a lifetime of service to our children, communities and our country.

• Release of the report, “All Volunteer Force: From Military to Civilian Service”, the first-ever nationally representative survey of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans. The report finds that for this new generation of 1.8 million veterans, continued service is likely to help smooth the transitions home. The report was written by Civic Enterprises and underwritten by Target and the Case Foundation.

• Unveiling of 36 civilian-military organization initiatives under the ServiceNation umbrella.

Care Package Assembly for Military Families (Marvin Center, 12 noon):
In partnership with the military family organization Blue Star Families, event participants and George Washington University students will create more than 500 “Thx Box” care packages for families of active-duty military, sponsored by the forthcoming PBS documentary “This Emotional Life” and Target.

Performance of “The Telling Project” (Lisner Auditorium, 3 p.m.):
“The Telling Project” is an acclaimed veteran and civilian collaboration that uses the medium of theater to open up communication between veterans and their communities. In this 22-minute performance, six college students and recent graduates, including five veterans and one military spouse, will tell their own dramatic stories of service.

About: MISSION SERVE: Forging a Continuum of Service will activate people engaged in
volunteer and military service across America to more closely coordinate our civilian service and military communities, enabling each to strengthen the other and, ultimately, to strengthen our nation. The initiative partners the ServiceNation coalition’s community service organizations with veterans groups, military family groups, and active-duty and reserve components of each military branch. These partnerships will more closely integrate service to country with service to community, and will help grow the service movement that is critical to America's future success.

Bank of America is proud to support MISSION SERVE as a means of enhancing service opportunities for military and civilians.

ServiceNation is a national campaign to increase service opportunities and elevate service as a core ideal and problem-solving strategy in American society. Reaching an estimated 100 million citizens through its 250 member groups, ServiceNation played a leading role in the drafting and April 2009 enactment of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which authorizes the greatest expansion of national service in America since FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps. Now that the Act has passed, the ServiceNation coalition is working to inspire a powerful culture of volunteerism in our country. We envision an America in which a commonly asked question is, “Where do you serve?” For more information, visit www.servicenation.org.