Red Wings to hold Military Appreciation Night on Friday

Photo by Jen Hefner/MiHockey
Photo by Jen Hefner/MiHockey

 

By @MichaelCaples –

When the Red Wings host the New Jersey Devils on Friday, they will also be saluting our country’s military.

Detroit will host their seventh annual Military Appreciation Night, in the effort to collect care package items and monetary donations to help support homeless veterans.

For the first time, the Red Wings will wear camouflage jerseys during the pregame warm-ups. Those jerseys will be auctioned online through auctions.nhl.com prior to the game, and proceeds will benefit Help For Our Disabled Troops – a military charity committed to helping disabled veterans who have returned to our country with serious injuries since Sept. 11, 2001.

The event, sponsored by Applebee’s, will help the Blue Star Mothers of America support homeless veterans at the VA Domiciliary in Detroit and the VA in Iron Mountain, Mich. The monetary donations will help with the cost of shipping the care packages to Iron Mountain, along with covering the cost of additional care item package purchases.

“We are excited to be a part of Military Appreciation Night with the Red Wings,” said Mark Schostak, whose family owns 66 Michigan Applebee’s locations, “and we are proud to continue to honor servicemen and servicewomen year-round with Military Monday, when veterans and active duty military will receive a 30-percent discount on their food purchases all day every Monday at Applebee’s.”

Suggested care package item donations include:

  • Wet wipes (cleaning wipes like Clorox and individual hand wipes like Wet Ones)
  • Hygiene items: travel size shampoo and conditioner, bar soap, deodorant, razors, shaving cream (not in an aerosol can), toothbrush and toothpaste, etc.
  • Socks and t-shirts (must be dark brown or khaki)
  • DVDs
  • Laundry detergent and fabric softeners (unscented)
  • Chapstick and sunscreen
  • Gum
  • Powdered drink mixes and individual packets
  • Magazines, books and CDs
  • Playing cards
  • Disposable cameras
  • Hard candy

Other notes from the press release:

Special Military Ticket Savings

Special military tickets have been reserved and are available for a limited time for all military personnel, as well as their family and friends, starting at $30 apiece for upper-level seats. The Red Wings will donate $5 from each ticket purchased through the special offer to the USO, whose mission is to provide support by lifting spirits of American’s troops and families. To purchase tickets, visit: www.DetroitRedWings.com/military, using the promotion code: MILITARY.

Merchandise Clearance Sale

Fans attending Friday’s game will have the unique opportunity to purchase autographed items from current and former Red Wings players at a team clearance sale behind Section 126 on the concourse. Items range from hockey sticks autographed by Chris Osgood and Danny DeKeyser to pucks autographed by Nick Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg to 2013-14 team-signed jerseys. All of the proceeds raised from the fire sale will benefit Help For Our Disabled Troops.

“Support Our Troops” Banner

Fans are also encouraged to sign an eight-foot-wide banner behind Section 112 on the concourse Friday night. The banner has been signed by the entire 2014-2015 team and reads “The Detroit Red Wings Support Our Troops.” The Wings will send the team-signed and fan-signed banner to the 171st Air Refueling Squadron, a Michigan-based military unit stationed overseas.

Wings Honor Military on Friday

Military members in attendance will be honored throughout the game, including guests in the Powerhouse Gym Budd Lynch Veterans Suite and 10 military members in a suite courtesy of Applebee’s.  Prior to the game, 50 military members, in addition to their guests, will attend the Red Wings morning skate at 10:30 a.m. and will enjoy lunch afterwards provided by Applebee’s in the Comerica Bank Legends Club.