Rider’s annual Plant-A-Flag supports community members for Veterans Day
By Cal Sutton
Rider’s annual Veterans Day Plant-A-Flag is a volunteer event showing support and solidarity with community members who are a part of the military and military families.
This year’s Plant-A-Flag was announced in a Nov. 6 universitywide email, with the event hosted on Nov. 10.
The rain throughout the morning of the event made the Campus Mall muddy, but it did not stop students and other community members from assisting in the cause and showing their support for veterans within the Rider community.
From faculty and staff members planting flags in honor of veterans to students helping out to earn credit for their classes, many people from the Rider community joined together in the rain to show they care about veterans of the U.S. military.
Julie Ruskan, a second year graduate student majoring in business administration, went to Rider for her undergraduate degree and continued with her graduate studies at the university.
Ruskan’s brother is also a Rider alum who joined the military during the COVID-19 shutdown. The Plant-A-Flag event is important to Ruskan because her brother was sworn into the Coast Guard at Rider at this event in 2020.
“He actually swore into the Coast Guard with these flags behind him because it was during [COVID-19]. So it’s … really special to me because I used to always [plant these flags] with him,” Ruskan said.
It is also important to her, coming from a family with veterans and relatives in the military.
Ruskan’s brother, Scott Ruskan ’21, is a rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard and saved nearly 200 people from severe flooding from the Guadalupe River in Central Texas in July 2025, earning him the Distinguished Flying Cross for his “actions, skill and heroism,” according to the Coast Guard.
Ruskan’s parents have also come to campus and helped plant flags to show support for veterans in the past.
“I really love what they do … in regards to Veterans Day and having the flags up, I love that tradition,” Ruskan said. “It’s really special for me.”
Organizational changes
In an Oct. 17 universitywide email, the Office of the President announced that the university would be undergoing reorganization efforts in order to “increase efficiency.”
The changes involved the Dr. Eugene Marsh Center for Veterans and Military Affairs, an office at Rider that provides assistance to students who are connected to the military, being moved under the Division of Community Engagement and Belonging.
Vice President of Community Engagement and Belonging Darryl Mace now assists the Center for Veterans and Military Affairs by overseeing the office.
The office’s function will not be changing following the switch in leadership, but there will be further efforts to get students who are connected to the military involved both on campus and in the community.
“We are looking to expand the scope and reach of the Dr. Eugene Marsh Center for Veterans and Military Affairs,” Mace said. “In the same respect, we want to boost support for our affiliated veterans and affiliated students.”
The Center for Veterans and Military Affairs is beginning to market off-campus events and other military-related affairs to veterans or military-affiliated students, such as a celebration of the Marine Corps’ birthday happening in Philadelphia.
With the strategic reorganization, the Center for Veterans and Military Affairs did not undergo any budget changes, according to Mace.
Events that display support to those connected to the military is important, Mace said.
“There are really unique needs for [military affiliated] students … and we need to make sure we meet those needs,” Mace said.
