Local non-profit community organization hosts Veterans Day Banquet

Community Action Group for Encouragement (C.A.G.E.) will host its Veterans Day Banquet on Friday, November 13, 2026 at 6 p.m. at Goodwill AME Church (2818 North Highway 17, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464). Veterans, their family members, and other community members are invited to attend.

The event features Colonel Willette Alston-Hockaday as the guest speaker, Perry S. Jenkins, Sr., Retired CWO-4, USMC, as the distinguished honoree, and News 2 Anchor Octavia Mitchell as the emcee. This year’s theme is “Serving the Country and Community.” The event will also include jazz music, a buffet by Buckshot’s Restaurant/Joe’s Catering Service, and photo opportunities for veterans. Guests who become new members of C.A.G.E. at the event will receive a C.A.G.E. t-shirt. T-shirts will also be on sale. Event proceeds will go toward the development of C.A.G.E.’s Cultural Community Recreation Center, which will provide more access to indoor public recreation programs and facilities to adequately serve
the social, recreational, cultural, and educational needs of the historic communities.

Guest Speaker Willette Alston-Hockaday is a retired United States Army Full Bird Colonel, author, and educator from Awendaw, South Carolina. Her 33 years affiliated with the Army span deployments to Desert Storm in Iraq and Kuwait, casualty and officer-strength management with the 3rd Infantry Division, the Pentagon, HBCU leadership, and battalion
command. She made history as the first female professor of military science at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Diagnosed with PTSD in 2020 and sober for more than 30 years, she speaks to military, veteran, recovery, faith, education, and leadership audiences. Alston-Hockaday is the author of From Crack to Colonel: One Woman’s Fight from Rock Bottom to Full Bird Colonel, a memoir about recovery, faith, military leadership, and what becomes possible when a person refuses to let the worst chapter of their life write the last one.

Distinguished Honoree Perry S. Jenkins, Sr., Retired CW04, USMC is a Charleston, South Carolina native who served 24 years in the United States Marine Corps. He earned multiple meritorious promotions, served in key leadership roles at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, as a drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit
Depot Parris Island, sergeant instructor at Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia, and held senior maintenance leadership positions in Okinawa, Japan and Camp LeJeune, deploying in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. After his retirement as a Chief Warrant Officer 4, Jenkins continued supporting national and veteran programs as a site manager for FAAC Corporation, logistics specialist and lead R&D technician for SPAWAR, and business manager for engineering at The Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. Jenkins currently serves as president of The National Montford Point Marine Association Chapter 47 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Tickets are $75 and can be purchased at www.7milecage.org/events or by scanning the QR code on the event flyer. Community Action Group for Encouragement (C.A.G.E.) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization created to improve the quality of life in the Seven and Six Mile Communities located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. While rooted there, CAGE has expanded its efforts from Mount Pleasant to McClellanville, serving as an information hub for neighboring communities that face many of the same challenges and connecting citizens with resources on topics, such as home improvement, education, traffic and safety, and environmental concerns.

For more information about the event or C.A.G.E., contact James Otis Foreman at (843) 813-1158 or [email protected], or visit www.7milecage.org or the C.A.G.E. Facebook page.