November 11 Ceremony Will Establish Annual Veterans Day Event
LEWISBURG, Pa. — Bucknell University will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I with a ceremony in the Rooke Chapel Meditation Grove on Sunday, Nov. 11, starting at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony will honor the 718 members of the Bucknell community who participated in the Great War, including the 40 who died during, or as a direct result of, the war.
Since Veterans Day was established on the first anniversary of the end of World War I and is also Nov. 11, this year’s ceremony will establish an annual Veterans Day ceremony at Bucknell. All veterans and members of the community are encouraged to attend.
David Del Testa, a Bucknell history professor and faculty advisor for the Bucknellians in WWI Project — a faculty-student teaching and research initiative that recovers the stories of Bucknellians who served in the war — will open the ceremony with brief reflections on the war and its consequences for Bucknell and the nation today.
“After researching with students and colleagues over the past four years the 718 Bucknellians who participated directly in the Great War, this ceremony will pay tribute to those brave men and women on the centennial anniversary of the end of the war,” Del Testa said.
Del Testa’s remarks will be followed by presentation of the colors by the Bucknell Army ROTC Bison Battalion and the singing of the national anthem, a benediction, and remarks by Bucknell President John Bravman.
At 11 a.m., there will be two minutes of silence to recall the exact moment the war ended in 1918, accompanied by ringing of the bells in Rooke Chapel and other Lewisburg churches. Church bells throughout Europe will ring at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, the exact time that the Armistice came into force to end the war 100 years ago. The silence will be followed by a reading of the 40 names of Bucknellians who perished as a result of World War I.
Light refreshments will be served in Rooke Meditation Chapel. In the case of inclement weather, the event will be held in the Freas Hall Admissions Lounge.
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CONTACTS: Mike Ferlazzo, 570-577-3212, mike.ferlazzo@bucknell.edu; David Del Testa, 570-577-3779, ddeltest@bucknell.edu