By: NICOLAS FIERRO
Salina Post
VFW Post 1432 in Salina will be hosting an event that is dedicated to First Responders and U.S. Veterans at the end of this month.
According to U.S. Veteran and event organizer Jon Armstrong, "Armstrong Entertainment" has conducted this 4th annual event "Salute To Our Hero's" that will occur at VFW Post 1432 on Friday, June 27th (1108 W. Crawford St.) from 7:00 pm - 10:30 pm. General admission is $50 and VIP & Meet N Greet is $75.
Artists such as Derby, KS country singer Jaelen Johnston (who performed on 'The Voice'), Comedian Jarell Roach, Jared Weeks from rock band "Saving Abel," country singer Bigg Vinny from "Trailer Choir" and country singer Jason Michael Carroll will all perform and make an appearance at the event.
Armstrong commented that this event used to be called "Salute To Our Veterans," but was changed to "Salute To Our Hero's" after the Los Angeles fires that occurred on January 7th, 2025.
"We have alot of veterans that are in the police and fire department, and these guys are heroes too, so we opened this event to be a 'Salute To Our Hero's' event, said Armstrong. "After the fires, I thought we need to take care of our own first responders and veterans too."
Armstrong described that one of the leading factors of starting this event, was due to witnessing many homeless veterans that needed help. Before the annual event was started 4 years ago, Armstrong wanted to dedicate this event to the homeless veterans.
"The very first year, I wanted to do something to help our homeless veterans and it has continued to grow since then," stated Armstrong.
Since this event has started all of the artists that perform arrive to Salina a week before and will travel with Armstrong Entertainment to schools, prisons and hospitals around Kansas to performs for the veterans. This year before the event, Bigg Vinny and Jason Michael Carroll will travel with Armstrong Entertainment to the Winfield Veterans Home (Winfield, KS) on Thursday, June 26th to perform for the veterans in Winfield.
The event will also consist of silent/live auctions and all funds collected will go towards the VFW Post 1432, Kansas Law Enforcement Memorial and the Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
1 Vision Aviation is the main sponsor that is sponsoring this event.