DESOTO—Each year, the City of DeSoto hosts an event to honor the contributions and sacrifice of military veterans and their families. This year, November 10, 2018 from 9 am to Noon, the city will again recognize veterans with their annual Vet Fest event. Festivities includes a special appreciation ceremony in the Jim Baugh Government Center, 211 E. Pleasant Run Road. All veterans and their families are invited to attend this important community event.
Vet Fest Offerings
In addition to the appreciation ceremony, we will have representatives from the Dallas VA Medical Center providing free blood pressure checks and flu shots for veterans along with the following:
a. Mental Health Representative
d. Appointment Scheduling Rep.
e. Hospice and Adult Day Care Services
f. Dallas County Veterans Services
g. The Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery and more
Local businesses and organizations who offer special services, discounts to veterans or who hire veterans are welcome to participate in Vet Fest. Applications are for vendors or employers are still available. For more information, please call Kathy Jones at (972) 230-9648.
This year the focus is honoring the service and contributions of female veterans. This year’s keynote speaker is Major Wai Y. President. Major Wai President is a Contracts Division Chief, Procurement Support and Policy Directorate at the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) HQ.
Major Wai President
Prior to her current position, Major President was a policy officer assigned to the J5 Strategic and Planning Directorates of U.S. Pacific Command. In the Northeast Asia Policy Division, as the Korea Country Director, she was responsible for pol-mil policy vis-Ã -vis Republic of Korea, Northeast Asia, trilateral and multilateral initiatives. And in the Strategy & Policy Division, she was responsible for Command force structuring projects and international armed services shows.
She provided planning and execution capability for Global Force Management Implementation Guidance/Forces For, responsible for Defense Force Structure change adjudication coordination. Additionally, as the Alaska Command transition planner, she established Plan of Action and Milestones and exceeded the Command transfer objective and timeline.
Prior to her role as Air Force Regional Affair Strategist, she was a Contracting Officer assigned to AFMC Electronic Systems Center, where she served as the Chief, Contracting Support for Directorate of Operations. In this role, she managed a $165 million contracts portfolio and played the multilateral savvy business advisor at local and deployed location. She supported Federal Small Business goals by awarding 8 (a) contracts that improved U.S. domestic economy. In Iraq, by supporting the public law 886 Iraqi 1st program for local small business systems, she facilitated the rebuild of Iraqi’s economy.
She organized the 2010 Victory Vendor fair that linked military customers to local businessmen. At the operational level, she synchronized and executed the physical merging of three major Regional Contracting Centers for the drawdown efforts.
