THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 21, 2009
BACKGROUND ON PITTSBURGH STEELERS AND USO SERVICE EVENT
President Obama will welcome the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers to the White House along with approximately 50 Wounded Warriors from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center and their families. The President will deliver brief remarks, and then the Steelers players, the Service members and their families, and the rest of the crowd will work with USO to assemble care packages for troops.
Background on Operation USO Care Package program:
The Operation USO Care Package program began in 2003 and has assembled more than 1.6 million care packages. The USO sends approximately 25,000 packages a month to deployed service members. With the help of the USO at this service event, all guests will be packing 3,000 care packages that will be sent to our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Stage participants:
- Art Rooney II
- Coach Mike Tomlin
- Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes
- Team Captains Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, James Farrior and Jeff Reed
Expected attendees include:
- Pittsburgh Steelers and their staff
- Over 50 Wounded Warriors from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center (Bethesda)
- Secretary Vilsack
- Secretary Shinseki
- Senator Bob Casey
- Senator Arlen Specter
- Members of the House of Representatives
- Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl
- PA County Executive Dan Onorato
##
