Effort to help U.P Veterans travel to Emmy Awards

HANCOCK – As a fundraiser, a special screening of the documentary film, “Where Soldiers Come From” will take place this Friday, September 21, at 6:00 p.m. at the Finlandia University Finnish American Heritage Center.

Following the film, starting at 7:30 p.m., a pulled pork dinner will be served at the Monte Carlo sports bar on Ethel Street, Hancock.

“Where Soldiers Come From” was recently nominated for a 2012 News and Documentary Emmy Award in the Outstanding Continuous Coverage of a News Story category. Several of the soldiers featured in the film hope to travel to New York City to attend the Emmy Awards ceremony on October 1. The film screening and dinner are both fundraisers to help offset their travel expenses.

Directed by Houghton, Mich., native Heather Courtney, the film follows the stories of several Copper Country soldiers in the 1431st Engineer Company of the National Guard, which is based in Calumet.

Each of the young men featured in the film graduated from Hancock High School in 2005, all were deployed to Afghanistan in 2009, and all have now returned to the Upper Peninsula. The film was released in fall 2011 and has been shown in major cities and on PBS television stations. Learn more about the film at www.wheresoldierscomefrom.com.

The film screening will begin with a special “meet and greet” with some of the film’s cast members.  Tickets are $10.00 per person and include an autographed movie poster.

Tickets for the dinner are $5.00 per person.

For those who wish to support this effort but are unable to attend Friday’s events, donations may be made at the Monte Carlo and at the 5th & Elm Coffee House locations in Houghton and Calumet.

For more information contact Emily Dekker-Fiala at 906-281-2896 or fiala@pasty.net.