A total of 60 people attended the November 14, 2025, 4th Annual Bishop McDevitt Assembly #920 Veterans Appreciation Mass & Dinner. Twenty-one of those attendees were veterans.
Special thanks to Faithful Friar, Father Stephen Kelley, for celebrating the Mass and being an integral part of the dinner program.
Thanks also to Father Sahd, Deacon Shriver, Sir Knight Joe Valenti, and First Sgt. (Retired) Jaun T. Mafnas, for helping to organize the Mass and particpate in the Mass and dinner program.
Unfortunately, our guest of honor, World War II veteran and recent purple heart recepient, Harold "Bud" Pressel, Jr., was not feeling well and could not attend.
A presentation was created by host and Past Faithful Navigator, Kelly Brown, to cover "Bud's" military career/heroism and family, to include his beautiful wife of 77 years, Grace, the love of his life.
The attached pdf. is a copy of the PowerPoint presented at the start of the program. Yes, the group sang "The Star-Spangled Banner!" They did quite well.
"America's White Table" or "Missing Man Table" was set up by Lady Suzanne Pretty. Wife of veteran Michael Pretty, who is also a member of our 4th degree. Lady Suzanne Pretty is CEO of Memorial White Rose Home Health & Hospice. In addition to setting up the Missing Man Table, she provided certificates, pins and chocolate candy bars for our veterans that night.
American's White Table, pictured, is a symbol for, and remembrance to, service members fallen, missing, or held captive in the line of duty. Our World War II veteran we honored on this night, Harod "Bud" Pressel, Jr., certainly fit the bill.
Special thanks to veterans Dick Sloan, Clay Newton, John Fay, Pat Workinger, Ron Falciano and Jaun T. Mafnas pictured below for sharing their military career information. Their accomplishments are beyond remarkable and greatly appreciated.
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Thank you Sir Knight, David Parkkonen and Lady Sue Parkkonen for doing a great amount of heavy lifting when setting up the St. Francis/St. Clare Rooms for the event. Thank you, Past Faithful Navigator and Sir Knight James Phipps, for the professional photographs. Thank you Faithful Navigator, Mel McConnell, for sacrificing some of the evening program in order to have the dinner program ready to go. Finally, thank you Lady Sandra Brown, my wife, for helping with set-up and serving the meal.
During the start of the program we acknowledged the beautiful display of flags attendees noticed when coming to the Mass. Those flags were provided courtesy of the St. Rose of Lima Columbiettes. Lady Sandra took the order information, assembled and displayed the flags pictured below. Just as a side note, the high winds and rain after installation caused over 50 flags to be damaged. Lady Sandra identified the 50 flags out of 190 plus flags and recreated the missing name tags and flags. Vivat Jesus!
