2026 Hoedown For Heroes

BENEFITING THE MILITARY, VETERANS, AND THEIR FAMILIES

Friday, November 13th
At the Flying W Ranch in Colorado Springs

Thank you for your support and participation!

HOEDOWN FOR HEROES

Friday, November 13th

EMCEE- DIANNE DERBY KOAA5

5:30 PM VIP DOORS OPEN

6:00 PM GENERAL ADMISSION

 6:15 PM WELCOME

National Anthem

Invocation, Military Ministry First Pres Robert McConnell, U.S. Army, Ret.

Southern Homestyle Meal

 GUEST SPEAKER
Dr. Travis M. Hearne

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 

Celebrating their 10-year Anniversary, Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center is a leading direct services support organization and national advocate for Military, Veterans, and their Families. It's 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. These critical integrated, wrap-around services include Transition & Employment Programs, Behavioral Health Counseling, and Family Supportive Services, which deliver a hand up to 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.

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.

GUEST SPEAKER, Dr. TRAVIS M. HEARNE
 

     Dr. Travis Hearne is the Founder and CEO of Titanium Consulting Group, an international best-selling author, keynote speaker, and Marine Corps combat veteran. He served nine years in the Marine Corps, leading teams in Iraq (2008-2009) and Afghanistan (2010), then spent five years as a Senior Intelligence Analyst at U.S. Northern Command focused on terrorist threats to the homeland and transnational criminal organizations. After leaving the Marines in 2016, he continued serving as a government civilian: first as a counterterrorism intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency, then as Chief of the Border Security, Counter-Narcotics, and Counter-Cartel directorate, and finally as Chief Interagency and Operational Officer focused on advanced cyber threats from Russia and China. Travis holds a Doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California, where his research examined transformational leadership in Department of Defense cybersecurity, and a Master's in Homeland Security and Geospatial Intelligence from Penn State.

We Tip our Hats to our Generous Sponsors!