The National Ability Center’s Saluting Our Heroes luncheon is coming home.

After years of hosting the event at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City and pivoting to a virtual event in 2020 and a small ceremony in 2021, the luncheon will return to Park City on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the National Ability Center, said Caitlin Bognaski, National Ability Center’s senior development and events manager.

“Since the last time we did an in-person event in 2019, we’ve opened up The Hub, a new building on our campus,” she said “We are able to seat 300 people for our luncheon in there, and we thought it would be great to bring people to our campus to see the facilities and the other things we have to offer for our participants.”

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Registration for Saluting Our Heroes is now open at discovernac.org/events/saluting-our-heroes. 

We thought it would be great to bring people to our campus to see the facilities and the other things we have to offer for our participants…” Caitlin Bognaski, National Ability Center’s senior development and events manager

“We do recommend people to register as soon as possible, because the capacity is reduced this year,” Bognaski said. “But it will be nice to have a luncheon in a room and have both our keynote speaker and participant speaker join us.”

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This year’s keynote speaker is General Martin E. Dempsey, 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who recently retired after 41 years of military service.

During his career, Dempsey served in both Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, accumulating 42 months in combat.

During his last four years of service, he served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior officer in the Armed Forces and the military advisor to the secretary of Defense and to the president.

After retiring in 2015, Dempsey’s post-military career includes executive-in-residence at Duke University, special advisor to the commissioner of the National Basketball Association for leader development and youth programs, and as chairman of USA Basketball. Dempsey also sits on the boards of TAPS and the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

A VIP reception will be held before the luncheon from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m, and Dempsey will sign his 2020 book, “No Time For Spectators: The Lessons That Mattered Most From West Point To The West Wing” after the luncheon, Bognaski said.

Dempsey was out of the country and not available for comment, but as Bognaski’s father, he did tell her he was looking forward to speaking at the luncheon.

“He believes strongly in our mission and what we do for our military service members and veterans and their families,” she said. 

The National Ability Center, a recreational nonprofit, provides programming for people of all abilities, and 30% of those served annually are from the military, Bognaski said.

“In the past year we served 1,100 service members, veterans and their family members,” she said. “That number is always growing, now that we’re getting back to full programming.”

Some of the programming includes military men’s and women’s summer retreats, Summit Challenge military cycling camps, family rafting trips, military family ski days, course challenges and paddle sports. 

“The biggest goal of the luncheon is to honor our service members, veterans and their families, but it’s also a fundraiser for the National Ability Center,” Bognaski said. “Any money raised through the event will go directly to our military participants and military programs.”

In addition to Dempsey, who was voted one of the Time magazine’s most influential people, the luncheon will also include comments from Gary R. Harter, executive director of the Utah Department of Military Affairs; the National Ability Center’s CEO Dan Glasser; and one of the NAC’s military program participants, Frank DeVito, Bognaski said.

“There will be a video about Frank, and he will share his thoughts about the NAC with us,” she said. “After that, Gen. Dempsey will speak.”