With Veteran’s Day approaching, the CMU Student Veteran’s Association hosted an All Military Ball as a fundraiser Friday night in the University Center Ballroom.

The event, modeled after the 238-year-old traditional celebration of the United States Marine Corps’ birthday, was also opened to local police officers and firefighters.

A keynote address was delivered by Larry Capetto, a local documentarian who has interviewed over 1,000 veterans in the production of a documentary called “Lest They Be Forgotten.”

“We hear freedom is not free,” he said. “It sounds like a cliche, but when I ask veterans what freedom means to them, that’s when they start to cry. Our veterans are the backbone of America, and we take it for granted. It’s not that we’re bad people, but it’s easy to take for granted.”

Barry Teeple, SVA President, said that the event raised about $1400 for the SVA. Some of the money will be contributed to the Western Slope Vietnam War Memorial Scholarship fund. Last year, the association chose to contribute 25 percent of the money to the fund.

The rest of the money will help the SVA fund a trip Jan. 2-5 to Scottsdale, Ariz., for the National Leadership Conference for Student Veterans in America.

They were invited to the conference to compete in a business plan competition on how to make Student Veteran’s Associations financially sustainable over the years.

Other developments are also on the horizon for the SVA.

Next semester, the CMU administration will provide the SVA with a Veteran’s Resource Room in Houston Hall. The Resource Room will serve as a one-stop, centralized source of information for student veteran, to help them use resources like the GI Bill or veteran’s health care.

“It can be kind of overwhelming,” Teeple said of the processes to receive veteran’s benefits. “It’s a lot of information.”

crclark2@mavs.coloradomesa.edu