In addition to the countless hours of completely volunteer MEA team, MEA2 is made possible by the generosity of the organizations, businesses, and individuals who sponsor the event monetarily and through the donation of supplies.
Our sponsors don’t just say they support our veterans, they demonstrate their support through actions.
Whether you live and work in Lawton, Oklahoma or on the other side of the country, you can help MEA positively influence the lives of hundreds of veterans as a sponsor by contacting the symposium Director, Jason Poudrier, at jpoudrie@cameron.edu.
There are two types of sponsors, Premier and Featured. Learn more about each below.
Premier Sponsors
Premier sponsors are those organizations who donate more than $1000 and individuals who donate more than $500.
In addition to being listed on our website, Premier donors will be recognized in multiple ways:
- Organizational logo posted on all of our promotional fliers and shirts.
- Prominent advertising space in our welcome packet.
- Recognition during each featured event and corresponding workshops.
- Meal ticket for lunch with Ben Patton on May 15th (upon request)
- Reserved premium seating at all featured events (upon request)
- Premium, hand-made, certificate of recognition presented during Closing Ceremony
- Letter of Recognition
Current Premier Donors
Co-Sponsor – Cameron University
Cameron University, MEA2’s host institution, allocated a number of resources to make our event possible. The symposium director is a Cameron faculty member, moderators at MEA2 workshops will be the same, facility costs were discounted if not free, different departments came together to help with the creation of items like the welcome packet and promotional posters, and at least one meal was sponsored by the university. Special thanks to our host institution for making MEA2 possible!
Cameron University’s history is rooted in Oklahoma’s statehood. In 1908, one year after Oklahoma became a state, the Oklahoma Legislature created six agricultural high schools in each judicial district. Cameron State School of Agriculture was named for the Rev. E. D. Cameron, a Baptist minister and Oklahoma’s first State Superintendent of Schools. The first classes were held on Statehood Day, November 16, 1909, in the basement of a bank building while a new campus building was constructed.
Cameron added junior college work in 1927. With this changed function came a new name — Cameron State Agricultural College. In 1941, high school courses were dropped, and Cameron became solely a junior college.
Baccalaureate degrees were authorized in 1966 by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, following action by the Legislature. The institution’s name was shortened to Cameron College in 1971, and then changed to Cameron University in 1974.
In 1988, State Regents expanded Cameron’s functions to include offerings at the master’s degree level. This change in function was the first granted to an Oklahoma institution since Cameron was given the authority to offer bachelor’s degrees more than 20 years earlier. In May 2004, the Duncan Higher Education Center in Duncan, Oklahoma, became an official branch campus and was renamed Cameron University – Duncan.
Today, Cameron is known as the “University of Choice” and serves students from around the world. Offering more than 50 degrees through two-year, four-year and graduate programs, Cameron is the only public university in Oklahoma that offers associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs at one site.
Cameron University is committed to providing its students a top quality education with caring and qualified faculty. Small class sizes provide an environment where learning and student success are the highest priority.
Cameron offers an honors program, early admission, advanced standing, a study abroad program, and college-level examination programs. Free tutoring is available in labs across campus to assist students in achieving academic success.
So confident in the quality education students receive, Cameron University has implemented “The Cameron University Guarantee.” Cameron will provide additional education, at no expense to the graduate or employer, to Cameron baccalaureate graduates who enter the workforce and whose employers identify a deficiency in core employment areas in the graduate’s major field of study.
“The Cameron University Guarantee” is believed to be the first program of its kind offered by a public university in Oklahoma and one of the first in the nation. For more information go to http://www.cameron.edu/guarantee.
Learn more about Cameron University here.
$5000 – Red Earth MFA
The Red Earth Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Oklahoma City University offers you the opportunity to escape your busy life to pursue your writing passion.
Learn more about Red Earth MFA here.
Contact Information: MFADirector@okcu.edu
$2500 – 
Oklahoma Arts Council
Select programming is made possible in part by a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council.
Mission: To lead, cultivate and support a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education and economic vitality for all Oklahomans.
What We Do:
- Award matching grants to arts and cultural organizations, schools, and local governments in order to increase resources available for producing community arts and arts education programs throughout Oklahoma.
- Support opportunities for all Oklahomans to create, perform or attend arts activities.
- Raise public awareness about the value of the arts to the economic, educational, and cultural life of Oklahoma. The arts produce jobs and attract out-of-state tourists, directly impacting Oklahoma’s economy.
- Foster education through the arts and support efforts to implement the arts as part of the core curriculum for all students in every Oklahoma school.
The Oklahoma Arts Council is the official state agency for the support and development of the arts. The Council’s mission is to lead, cultivate and support a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education and economic vitality for all Oklahomans. The Council provides more than 500 grants to over 300 organizations in communities statewide each year, organizes professional development opportunities for the state’s arts and cultural industry, and manages hundreds of works of art in the public spaces of the state Capitol. For more information, visit arts.ok.gov.
$2000 – Cameron University’s Chapter of Student Veterans of America (SVA)
Cameron’s SVA chapter is in its third year. This year, SVA is the primary partner of MEA2. In addition to making a substantial financial contribution, MEA’s partnership with Cameron’s SVA permits free use of university facilities. Further, SVA members are investing countless volunteer hours to ensure the event’s success.
Bi-weekly meetings are held on Fridays at 3:00 PM in the Aggie Room, located on the second floor between the Shepler buildings at Cameron University. Come and join SVA and make a difference in a veteran’s life.
Contact Information: james.wilson@cameron.edu or jpoudrie@cameron.edu
$1000 – Military Order of the Purple Heart, Mount Scott Chapter #602
Chartered by Congress in 1958, The Military Order of the Purple Heart is composed of military men and women who received the Purple Heart Medal for wounds suffered in combat. Although our membership is restricted to the combat wounded, we support all veterans and their families with a myriad of nation-wide programs by Chapters and National Service Officers.
Monthly meetings are held the first Tuesday of every month at 6:30 PM at the American Legion, 605 SW 11th Street, Lawton, OK 73501.
Contact Information: brucedwyer@sbcglobal.net
$1000 – Disabled Veterans of America, Lawton, OK
DAV is the most long-lasting veterans advocacy and assistance group in this country. We’ve watched this country change and grow, and we’ve grown along with it. However, DAV has never wavered in its core mission to fulfill our country’s promises to the men and women who served. We invite everyone, veterans and civilian, men and women, young and old, to join us as we stand up for those veterans who risked it all when they stood up for us, our country, and our ideals.
The Lawton DAV office is located at 4704 NW Motif Manor Blvd. #5, Lawton, OK 73505. Meetings are held the first Tuesday of every month at 6:00 PM at the Oklahoma Veterans Center at 501 SE Flower Mound Rd, Lawton, OK 73501
Contact Information: (580) 248-8387
$500 – Vietnam Veterans of America, Lawton Chapter #751
Founded in 1978, Vietnam Veterans of America is the only national Vietnam veterans organization congressionally chartered and exclusively dedicated to Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA is organized as a not-for-profit corporation and is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(19) of the Internal Revenue Service Code
Meetings are held the third Saturday of the month from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM at Bingo Country, 809 SE Interstate Drive, Lawton, OK 73501.
Contact information: Vva751@fidnet.com or (580)-699-5096
$500 – Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems, cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide.
We hold ourselves to a higher standard, both in the products we deliver and in the way we conduct ourselves throughout the entire customer experience. Because, after all, we are in the business of securing a great deal more than just our place in the market.
Our mission is to be at the forefront of technology and innovation, delivering superior capability in tandem with maximized cost efficiencies. The security solutions we provide help secure freedoms for our nation as well as those of our allies. Squarely meeting our obligations, fiscally and technologically, isn’t just a business goal, but a moral imperative. To that end, as we evolve as a company, the responsibility we feel for our country and the citizens and troops we help support grows with us.
More information here.
$500 – Lawton Raytheon Facility
Raytheon Company is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, security and civil markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 92 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems; as well as a broad range of mission support services.
Learn more about Raytheon here.
$500 – Big Pasture Cultural Arts Foundation
The Big Pasture Cultural Arts Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to improving life through the cultivation of the visual and literary arts in the Texoma region of the Southern Plains.
Featured Sponsors
(Featured Sponsors are those organizations who donate up to $499 in monetary or material support or those individuals donating $249 of the same.)
In addition to being listed on our website, Featured Local donors will be recognized in multiple ways:
- Name of organization or individual listed in welcome packet
- Recognition during corresponding workshops if applicable
- Certificate of Contribution presented at closing ceremony
- Letter of Recognition
Current Featured Sponsors
In-Kind Sponsorship – Atlanta Bread Company
Atlanta Bread Company will be providing Coffee every morning and Tea and Water for Lunch-After Dinner.
In 1993, Atlanta Bread began as a small sandwich cafe tucked away in Sandy Springs – a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. We quickly became a fast-growing concept that answered a unique need – to satisfy appetites with fresh, quality food in a casual, friendly setting. The Atlanta Bread concept proved to be so appealing the company began offering franchise opportunities in 1995.
Our philosophy is simple: we use fine ingredients and traditional methods to produce exceptional sandwiches, salads, soups, and pastries. Atlanta Bread offers gift cards, online ordering*, and online catering* for group events.
Learn more about Atlanta Bread Company here.
In-Kind Sponsorship – Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post #5263
OUR MISSION:To foster camaraderie among United States veterans of overseas conflicts. To serve our veterans, the military, and our communities. To advocate on behalf of all veterans.
VFW Post 5263 will be providing a spaghetti dinner the first night of the event.
Monthly Meetings are held at their post located at 103 NE 20th St. Lawton, OK 73507 which is open daily from 11:30 AM – 12:00AM.
Contact Information: (580)-248-0713