Doane College to Host Veterans Day Program
Doane College will host its annual Veterans Day Program at 7:30 p.m. on November 11 in Heckman Auditorium.
Doane's program will include a performance by the Doane College Symphonic Wind Ensemble, along with a POW-MIA Honor Ceremony led by William Kerns of American Legion Post 294-Hallam, a reading by Roy Scheele, Doane's Poet-in-Residence; a recognition of the five branches of the service, and a speech by Lieutenant Governor Rick Sheehy. The audience will also hear traditional songs such as the national anthem, Taps, America the Beautiful, and The Stars and Stripes Forever.
The program commemorates the signing of the cease-fire that led to the end of the first World War. In honor of this day of peace, President Woodrow Wilson requested that November 11, 1919, be commemorated as Armistice Day. Nineteen years later, in time for the 20th anniversary of the cease-fire, Congress passed an act declaring every eleventh of November a federal holiday, in honor of those fallen during World War I.
In America, the commemoration of November 11 was not extended to all veterans until after World War II. To reflect this change, its name was changed to Veterans Day by Congress.