Clubs
While the UNC men’s basketball team celebrated Veterans Day by winning the
first basketball game played on top of an aircraft carrier, Carolina alumni across the nation
honored the military, veterans and their
families with Tar Heel Service Days projects.
More than 3, 100 volunteers in 69 Carolina
Clubs — from Atlanta to Dallas and
Honolulu — collected more than 11,000
items, assembled 250 care packages, wrote
350 greeting cards and raised more than
$14,500 on behalf of the armed forces, said
Casey Privette ’01, the GAA’s coordinator
of alumni clubs.
At the Orange/Durham County event
alone, alumni donated 9,000 personal-care
items such as razors, deodorant and laundry
detergent — which they brought to the
game-viewing party in Kenan Stadium’s
new Blue Zone — to the Durham Veterans
Administration Hospital. Meghan Wyrick
’07, club co-chair, said that Michael Jordan
’ 86 donated bottles of his new cologne and
that former men’s basketball coach Dean
Smith, who attended the game-viewing
party, also contributed to the cause.
Wyrick said the Carrier Classic game on
the USS Carl Vinson in San Diego — in
which the Tar Heels beat the Michigan State
Spartans 67-55 — reinforced her gratitude
for the sacrifices of the U.S. military. “For
many people,Veterans Day often passes by as
just another day on the calendar,” she said.
“The Carrier Classic, a nationally viewed
event in honor of America’s veterans, was a
very visible, interactive way to recognize their
contributions and sacrifices. Personally, I took
time during the game to reflect on the ways
my life is made better by our armed forces.”
Tar Heel Service Days are an annual
campaign by Carolina Clubs to perform
community service projects in their com-
munities. With the Carrier Classic set for
Veterans Day, many clubs decided on a mili-
tary focus this year.
After hearing that many service members
overseas do not receive mail from home, the
Arizona Carolina Club in Phoenix sent six
large care packages to an Army forward oper-
ating base in Afghanistan. Complete with
personal hygiene items, greeting cards and
plenty of UNC memorabilia, those care pack-
ages were the first in a series to come, said
club leader Ron Logan ’ 66. Inspired by the
success of its first service project, the club
decided to make it a quarterly commitment,
he said, adding that the group plans to visit
veterans at the Veterans Administration
Hospital in Phoenix in the spring.
With Michigan State alumni, the Boston
Carolina Club sent care packages to mem-
bers of the 182nd Army National Guard sta-
tioned in Afghanistan. The packages, tailored
to the unit’s requests, included cookies,
games like Bananagrams and i Tunes gift
cards, said club leader Aime Goldberg ’ 98.
The club also raised more than $600 for
the Home Base Program, which counsels
veterans and their families. To bolster support,
the club sold Carrier Classic cups for a con-
tribution of $5 or more and offered a “No.
1 Fan Prize” to the most generous donor. At
halftime, Jill Santopietro ’ 97 spoke about a
friend serving in the division and a repre-
sentative of Home Base spoke about the
importance of that program, Goldberg said.
The Foothills Carolina Club in Hickory
assembled 69 complete Thanksgiving meal
packages, each serving a family of four, said
Mark Murphy, a University of Alaska graduate and GAA life member who hosted the
club’s game-viewing party with his wife,
Lynn Murphy ’ 81. He said volunteers pre-
Carrier Classic Lets Clubs Serve Veterans
COURTESY FOOTHILLS CAROLINA CLUB
The Foothills Carolina Club collected food to
create 69 Thanksgiving meals for its
Veterans Day service project.
pared canned chicken and ham meals with
traditional Thanksgiving sides such as green
beans, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce;
each package cost less than $11. “That is a
small price tag to provide not only a meal,
but a small dose of hope and dignity,” he said.
As a retired disabled Air Force veteran who
once wondered how he would get his next
meal, Murphy said participating in the club’s
project helped him benefit fellow veterans
with financial difficulties. “Not only was I
able to honor veterans and active-duty military in my thoughts and prayers, I was able
to honor them by my actions,” he said. ;
— Emily Palmer
Celebrating U.S., UNC in the Congo
Morgan O’Brien ’01, a Foreign Service officer in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, watched the Carrier Classic
game over the Armed Forces Network,
about 2 a.m. Western African Time. He
said that he is the only Tar Heel on his side
of the Congo River, so his viewing party
included fans from Big 10 schools.
He said that even though most of the
audience watched the game with an out-
sider’s perspective, the poignancy of the
event was not lost on them. “From the
president being there to the spectacle of
playing a game outdoors on an aircraft car-
rier, everyone thought that the game was
pitch-perfect on a number of levels,” he
said. “And the [camouflage] uniforms were
not nearly as hokey as I imagined they’d
be. They were actually pretty cool.”
O’Brien said that watching the game
abroad made him miss home but also
reminded him of how proud he is to be an
American and a Tar Heel. As a veteran
who served as an Air Force officer in
Rwanda in 2005, O’Brien said he appreci-
ates when sports announcers acknowledge
the military. However, he said this recogni-
tion should also extend to the Foreign
Service, adding that it would help familiar-
ize Americans with its sacrifices.
CAROLINA ALUMNI REVIEW
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