New Jersey Celebration to Honor Veterans This Weekend
An American flag on a flagpole waves in the wind, October 2023.
This weekend is Veteran’s Day. A day that honors all military personnel who are or have served our country in the armed forces. This year, the Veterans Foundation of America has collaborated with the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation for the Veterans Music Fest. It’s their first partnership for the Veteran’s Music Fest which is in its twelfth year.
This Weekend
The Veterans Music Fest is for everyone to band together for veterans with live music, food, and fun. It’s being held this weekend, Veteran’s Day, November 11th, from 1- 8, in Belmar, New Jersey.
The Lineup
There’ll be seven rock and blues bands playing throughout the day. The Midnight Ravers go on at 1, followed by The Spider Daniels Band at 2. Jump Back performs at 3, then at 4 it’s The Bob DelRosso Band, and at 5 The Incinerators take the stage. Peter Veteska and Blues Train and The Chuck Lambert Band wrap up a day at 6 and 7 respectively.
Tickets
Tickets for the music festival are $20 and can be purchased here, admission is free for veterans and active military.
All proceeds raised by the music fest will go toward supporting outdoor veteran therapy programs, including fishing and equine therapy. The Cowboy Therapy Program consists of flying veterans, who have been affected with PTSD to Montana. There, they’ll work on a ranch, and learn how to ride and how to rope, and will also develop horse riding skills to help them round up cattle.
For more information about the event or how to show support for veterans, please visit the Veterans Foundation of America at thevfa.org or contact Jeff Cantor at [email protected].
Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation
The Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation is a non-profit organization open to anyone interested in supporting Jazz and Blues! The foundation has a mission to “To preserve, promote, and perpetuate jazz, blues, and other indigenous music forms here in New Jersey“. The JSJBF’s Band Together for Veterans program generates some much-needed funding for local programs that provide treatment for combat-related PTSD, services to the veteran homeless, and suicide prevention. Learn more here…
Ranking The 5 Best Thanksgiving Football Game Traditions
There are a few things that simply go hand-in-hand with the Thanksgiving holiday. Obviously, there’s turkey, eating until you need stretch pants, and football. To celebrate the many Thanksgiving football traditions across the country, we’ve ranked the five most common games you will find.
Before we start, let’s be clear: any football on Thanksgiving is acceptable. The game serves as the pre-meal event and the post-meal “I need to sit down and not move for a little bit” time period. However, even before Thursday, the holiday often kicks off with a football game. Whether you are in your hometown or watching a prime-time game on TV that is taking place across the country. On Thanksgiving week, one thing about the sport is for certain.
There’s Football For Everyone
For those who celebrate with friends or family, the Thanksgiving holiday often means a return to your hometown. Many regions have capitalized on this and scheduled their big market football game to take place either Wednesday or Friday night in order to make it available to all those in town.
On the collegiate level, it’s common to find a few major in-state rivalry games that take place as the Thanksgiving game. It’s one of the more intense battles of the year, given all the fans have such respect for their home state but despise the school there that they did not go to.
Then, there’s the NFL. You always know the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys are playing on Thanksgiving Day. The Lions will get the day going with the early game, and the Cowboys always get that late afternoon game that is often accompanied by a power nap. Nowadays, we get also get a nightcap game that alternates teams each year.
Still, with all the football fun already mentioned here, there’s another Thanksgiving game that sits above the rest. So, let’s dig in. Here are the most common Thanksgiving football games ranked down from five to one.
Joel Katz is the Morning Show Personality, Assistant Program Director, Podcast Host, Voiceover artist, audio producer, and Digital Content Writer for Magic 98.3. Joel has been working in New Jersey radio since college and started at Magic in 2002 as the Morning Show Host, “I can’t think of another place where I’d fit more perfectly; it’s just a great company with awesome people.” Joel is married to Kathleen, his elementary school sweetheart (they were each other’s first dates at age 9), shares a birthday with his oldest son, Ty, and has twins, Kiera and Liam. Joel runs at least 3.1 miles every day and enjoys playing basketball, doing laundry, saving his turn signal for when he really needs it, kissing dogs through a fence, using coasters, making that cool noise by rubbing his fingers on balloons, and chasing after ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.