The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets War Memorial Fund will donate $29,000 to Bedford, Va., officials for the city's D-Day Memorial at noon, Saturday, April 24, at the memorial on Overlord Circle in Bedford.

The D-Day Memorial was built in remembrance of those servicemen who gave their lives during the invasion at Normandy in WWII.

The Fund was conceptualized by Cadet Anthony Madeira in 2001, and since has been a completely cadet-run effort. When Madeira heard about the funding troubles faced by the D-Day Memorial in October of 2001, he decided to make a difference by developing a plan to raise money for the memorial through a company service project. Once Madeira received the approval of his company commander, he led Bravo Company on a whirlwind fundraising effort.

Bravo Company cadets began collecting money at various campus locations and asked for donations from fans at an October football game. Along with help from Golf Company, by the end of the first year, Bravo raised $6,000 for the D-Day Memorial. However, the effort didn't stop there.

Upon the beginning of the Fall 2002 semester, 1st Battalion adopted the fund-raising initiative, bringing more cadets to aid the fundraising effort. Three football games later, cadets had collected $9,000, not including a generous $1,000 donation from an anonymous alumnus.

The total $10,000 was used to adopt two plaques at the D-Day Memorial, one bearing the name of 1st Lt. Jimmie Monteith, one of the Corps' seven Medal of Honor recipients. Monteith served in the Corps of Cadets as a member of the Class of 1941 before he left to serve in WWII. He was present during the D-Day landing at Normandy and repeatedly organized numerous assaults against the enemy despite heavy fire. Monteith was killed in action and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Virginia Tech's Monteith Hall is named after him and houses the 3rd Battalion of the Corps.

In the fall of 2003, the fundraising effort continued to prosper with the creation and recognition of its official title: The VTCC War Memorial Fund. The fundraiser became a Corps-wide effort, and cadets collected donations from all but two of the home football games. On top of game donations, the Corps of Cadets donated their "Shadow Day" profit of $6,000, pulling the year's collected donation total to $29,000 thus far.

With the donation to the D-Day Memorial, the VTCC War Memorial Fund and its supporters hope to move to a wider corporate donation base benefiting numerous memorials to possibly include the WWI and WWII memorials, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Wall, the Pearl Harbor memorial, and the Women's Veterans Memorial.

The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets has been producing military and corporate leaders since the university was founded in 1872. It is one of just two remaining military corps within a large, primarily civilian university. The corps holds its members to the highest standards of loyalty, honor, integrity, and self-discipline. In return, cadets achieve high academic success and a long-lasting camaraderie with fellow members.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.

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