*An article in the May 17 edition of the Over the Mountain Journal, “In Memory: Support Our Soldiers Dinner Will Fund Care Packages for Troops Abroad,” has the wrong photo for Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Rivers Jr. The photo printed was of the late Ryan Winslow of Hoover, who was killed while serving in Iraq in 2006.
Just more than one year after their son Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Rivers Jr., died in Afghanistan, Thomas and Charon Rivers of Hoover hosted a memorial dinner to benefit Support Our Soldiers, an organization they founded in his honor.
On May 31, they will be hosting that dinner for the seventh time.
Scheduled to mark the Memorial Day holiday, the dinner, at Briarwood Presbyterian Church, will raise funds to send care packages to troops who are serving abroad as members of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines.
The couple said the organization was birthed from their desire to help young men and women who, like their son, dedicated their lives to defending the U.S.
The keynote speaker for the event will be Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr., a combat veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and chancellor of Troy University.
After graduating from the University of Montevallo in 1967, Hawkins was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps and served as a platoon leader during the Vietnam War.
Hawkins has earned the Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a citation from the Korean Marine Corps for his combat duty.
The dinner will begin at 6 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall and tickets are $25. Reservations must be made by May 24th.
For more information, visit supportoursoldiersalabama.org.
—Emily Williams
