Hoedown For Heroes

BENEFITING THE MILITARY, VETERANS, AND THEIR FAMILIES

Friday, November 14th
At the Flying W Ranch in Colorado Springs

Thank you for your support and participation!

HOEDOWN FOR HEROES

EMCEE- DIANNE DERBY KOAA5  

5:30 PM VIP DOORS OPEN

6:00 PM GENERAL ADMISSION

 6:45 PM WELCOME

National Anthem

Invocation, Chaplain Colonel Robert McConnell, U.S. Army, Ret.

Southern Homestyle Meal

 HONORED GUEST

 Colonel Kim "KC" Campbell, USAF, Ret.
Colonel Samantha Weeks, USAF, Ret.

8:00PM SILENT AUCTION CLOSES

LIVE AUCTION

FLYING W WRANGLERS "POWER"

MUSIC & DANCING

11:00PM GOODNIGHT Y'ALL

Western Attire is Encouraged

MT. CARMEL VETERANS SERVICE CENTER 

Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center is quickly becoming the leading support organization for Military, Veterans and their Families in the Pikes Peak Region. Large numbers of Military and Veterans in the greater Colorado Springs area make it vitally important that we as community leaders in government and the private sector alike, ensure that our heroes receive high quality and easily accessible essential services. Essential services include Employment and Transition Programs, Behavioral Health Counseling and Family Supportive Services, which meet the needs of our Military who find themselves in emergent situations. To achieve this, we are guided each day by our mission. https://veteranscenter.org/

 MISSION

To provide best practices for our military, veterans, and their families with accessible programs, integrated resources, and collaborative partnerships that empower lives and strengthen our community.

COLONEL KIM "KC" CAMPBELL, USAF, RET.

     Kim "KC" Campbell is a retired Colonel who served in the United States Air Force for over 24 years as a fighter pilot and senior military leader. She has flown 1,800 hours in the A-10 Warthog, including more than 100 combat missions protecting troops on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2003, Kim was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism after successfully recovering her battle-damaged airplane after an intense close air support mission.

     As a senior military leader, Kim has led hundreds of airmen both at home and abroad in deployed locations and enabled them to succeed in their missions. She has experience leading complex organizations and driving cultural change. Kim knows what it takes to be a successful leader, to inspire and empower high-performing teams to achieve success.

     Kim is a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. As a Marshall Scholar, she earned an MBA from the University of London and a Master of Arts in International Security Studies from the University of Reading in England.

     Kim's Air Force assignments include leadership roles as a Group Commander, responsible for over 1,000 Air Force personnel in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. She also served as the Military Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, advising the number three civilian official in the Department of Defense on national security and defense policy formulation. Kim has also served as the Air Force Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a pre-eminent think tank promoting international leadership and engagement. Most recently, she served as the Director of the Center for Character and Leadership Development at the Air Force Academy.

     Kim is now a keynote speaker and executive coach with Victory Strategies, a leadership development and coaching firm. She is the author of the bestselling book, Flying in the Face of Fear: A Fighter Pilot's Lessons on Leading with Courage.

COLONEL Samantha Weeks, USAF, RET.

     Samantha Weeks is results-driven leader in both the military and commercial sectors.  She is a retired Colonel who served in the Air Force for over 23 years as a fighter pilot and senior military leader. She amassed over 2,000 hours in the F-15C and F-16 including more than 100 combat/combat support hours.  In 2007, she was selected as the Air Force Thunderbirds' first-ever female solo demonstration pilot.  Her military career culminated as a Wing Commander where she was responsible for Air Force's largest and most diverse Pilot Training base, and oversaw $150 million annual budget with $2.3 billion in capital assets.  

     Upon her retirement, Samantha transitioned to the civilian sector and quickly elevated her prior military experience to help transform and cultivate Shift4 Payments, a $7B public company in the Financial Technology industry.  As the company's first-ever Chief Transformation Officer, Samantha envisioned, designed, implemented, and matured the day-to-day operations and strategic development of Human Resources, Learning & Development, Program Management, Quality, and Internal Communications of this growing International company.  During her tenure, Shift4 saw revenue growth almost double from $1.37B to $2.57B -- a 99.2% in three years, and almost doubled employee headcount with over 3,000 employees operating on a global stage in eight countries. 

     Samantha excels at understanding, leading, and cultivating diverse and complex organizations to achieve the individual's and the institution's fullest potential in culture, community, and success.  Samantha's passion centers around leader and leadership development to create the strongest teams by connecting individual strengths to the organization's mission and purpose.

     Samantha earned her Doctorate of Philosophy from Air University in Military Strategy where she researched and focused on leader and leadership development to best organizational futures and outcomes.  She also earned her Master of Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the United States Air Force Academy. Her professional accolades include selection as a committee member for the Department of Defense's Defense Advisory Council on Women In The Services (DACOWITS) 2022-present, an International Women's Forum (IWF) Fellow, 2019-2020, and a recipient of the National Aeronautic Association's Robert J. Collier Trophy, 2018.

EMCEE FOR THE EVENING, DIANNE DERBY

     Dianne Derby is a Three-time Emmy award-winning journalist with more than twenty years of experience covering major news events in southern Colorado and across the country. She solo-anchors the 4, 5 and 6 p.m. weekday newscasts at KOAA-TV News 5 (NBC).

     Dianne's life and career have been shaped through her coverage of the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest Fires, the Planned Parenthood and Club Q mass shootings, law enforcement funerals, interviewing families of missing or murdered children, and fighting for consumers desperate for a voice with companies that wouldn't listen.

     Dianne's book was released in the Spring of 2022, a memoir about the power of mentoring, titled "Two Hundred Tuesdays: What a Pearl Harbor Survivor Taught Me About Life, Love, and Faith" (NavPress). Her book has been discussed in numerous local and national podcasts, blogs, magazines and print articles and was a finalist for the Christian Book of the Year Award. Dianne has also been featured on the covers of Today's Christian Living magazine, Colorado Springs Style magazine, and Power for Living.

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