The Forty & Eight Charitable Veterans Since 1920
40&8 National Headquarters; 777 N. Meridian Street; Indianapolis, IN 46204-1170
317 634-1804 – Voiturenationale@msn.com – www.fortyandeight.org
MEDIA RELEASE Contact: M. Anich: publiciste408@cox.net
40&8 Vets Invite Media to National Convention, Vancouver, WA, Sept 13-17, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS July 27, 2011 The national Forty & Eight veterans organization will hold its 92nd annual Promenade Nationale (national convention) at the Hilton Convention Center, 301 W 6th Street, Vancouver, Washington, 98660, on September 13 – 17, 2011.
The Forty & Eight’s national commander, Chef de Chemin de Fer Henry “Hank” Kwiatkowski, invites members of the Press to attend the group’s national convention in September.
“We appreciate the vital role of America’s news media and we cordially invite its members to join us in September in Vancouver, Washington,” said Kwiatkowski.
Among the highlights of the convention will be parade locomotives on display, a color guard competition, and a children’s clown party for disadvantaged youths, each offering colorful opportunities for photos, video and stories.
The group’s annual national awardees will include 2011 Hero of the Year Corey T. Cummings,
(right) of Shreveport, Louisiana, who as a probationary firefighter rescued a two year old child from a house engulfed in flames.
The organization’s 2011 Law Officer of the Year is Sherriff Jeffrey J. Dawsy, (left) of Citrus Country, Florida, who led the investigation of the 2005 Jessica Lunsford abduction, assault, and murder, and has been instrumental in enacting “Jessica’s Law” in 43 states for the monitoring of sexual child predators.
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The Forty & Eight is an honor society of American veterans, founded in 1920 by veterans of the First World War. The group's French railroad boxcar theme reflects the then common experience of soldiers traveling to the battle front in boxcars, each emblazoned with a “40&8”, meaning either forty men or eight horses fit within. Always overloaded and seldom cleaned, the minor misery of traveling to war in boxcars symbolizes the deeper, unspoken things that bind all veterans and also serves as a more lighthearted focus for the comradeship and charitable efforts of today’s Forty & Eight veterans.
In the 1930’s, the Forty & Eight lead the fight against Childhood Diphtheria and in the 1950’s toward finding the cure to Hansen's Disease (leprosy). Today the Forty & Eight provides scholarships to nursing students, aids children and widows, youth sports, and other charitable endeavors.
The Forty & Eight’s National Media Kit is at http://www.fortyandeight.org/national-media-kit.htm
Questions regarding the Vancouver, WA, convention, Sept. 13 – 17; please contact John Clapp at 360 936-5505.
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