Raven Lirio
Copy Editor
More than one hundred students, staff and faculty filed their way into Lagerquist Concert Hall for Pacific Lutheran University’s Veteran’s Day Assembly on Nov. 11. The hour-long program was created in honor of veteran Lutes to recognize their commitment to serving their country.
Not to be confused with Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day is dedicated to honoring current or retired soldiers and thanking them for their service. This year’s celebration was particularly special as there were more than double the amount of people in attendance from previous years and it marked the first year of PLU issuing a challenge coin to honor PLU’s veterans.
“Challenge coins have been around since probably around the turn of the century,“ Director of Military Outreach Michael Farnum said. “Today, the culture is that those coins are given as a reward for excellent performance or some major accomplishment.”
PLU joins various other colleges in Washington that issue coins to veterans including Highline College, Washington State University and Seattle University.
“Here at PLU, I had the Student Veteran’s Association design a challenge coin to be given to military veteran students, faculty and staff to continue to develop the comraderie of the unit that is PLU and to reward their accomplishments of being successful up to this point,” Farnum said. “On the coin we have the Lute Knight, we have all of the branches of the military, Pacific Lutheran University and Student Veteran’s Association stamped on the face of the coin and on the back of the coin we have all the branches again, the rose window and a serial number.”
This serial number is unique to PLU coins in comparison to other colleges and what sets the university apart.
“Colleges in the Puget Sound Region and all over the United States have also struck coins for their veterans, but none of them that I have seen to this point have serial numbers on their coins. The fact that its serial numbered allows us to track it to its owner should it ever become lost and return to us makes it special,” Farnum said.
The event had performances of the Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America from sophomore Lindsey Hansen and the Armed Forces Medley from the PLU Brass Quintet.
