The Daniel Island Club will host its annual Military Appreciation Gala on Nov. 13, inviting guests from across the Lowcountry to a black-tie evening that doubles as a fundraiser for a local effort to end veteran homelessness in South Carolina. Tickets start at $96 and are open to the public, with discounts available for active-duty and retired military members.
The event, now in its second decade, was launched in 2015 and timed each year to recognize National Veterans and Military Families Month, according to The Daniel Island News. Proceeds support Project ZERO, an initiative of the Exchange Club of Daniel Island that aims to make South Carolina the first state with no homeless veterans.
A Navy Captain's Personal Stake in the Mission
Joe Delpino, a retired U.S. Navy captain and past president of the Exchange Club of Daniel Island, has deep family ties to military service. He has said his father fought in three wars — World War II, Korea and Vietnam — and that his father-in-law flew paratroopers into Normandy on D-Day at just 23 years old, per the same account from The Daniel Island News. Delpino has credited the broader community with stepping up for veterans in need.
Project ZERO originally identified 419 veterans in need of housing, and organizers say the program has since helped 979 veterans and 338 of their children get off the streets, according to figures Delpino provided. The Daniel Island News report also cites a 91% success rate in keeping those veterans housed. The Daniel Island Exchange Club's own program page states that fundraising since 2019, driven mainly by the annual gala, has helped more than 800 homeless veterans enter the HUD/VASH housing program along with more than 300 of their children.
How the Numbers Have Grown Since 2020
The scale of the effort has shifted considerably since the Exchange Club first launched the push. A 2020 report from The Daniel Island News found Project ZERO had housed 43 of 119 homeless veterans identified locally at that time — a fraction of the totals organizers now cite years later.
Statewide, the picture remains sobering even as progress is claimed locally. South Carolina's 2024 Point in Time count recorded 388 veterans experiencing homelessness, according to a report from the South Carolina Coalition for the Homeless. The same report found the state's continuums of care had 239 emergency, safe haven and transitional beds for veterans, alongside 1,237 permanent housing beds, during the 2023–2024 reporting period.
Tributes Planned Before Dinner and Dancing
The evening's program leans heavily on ceremony. The Philip Simmons Color Guard will present the colors, an act Delpino has described as a proud moment of respect, while retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mike Roller will lead a missing man table tribute honoring prisoners of war and service members missing in action. Guests will also sing their military branches' songs and watch a slideshow honoring service members from local families.
Cocktails begin at 6 p.m. on Nov. 13, with dinner served at 7 p.m., followed by music and dancing once the formal tributes conclude. Guests can register at dixchangeclub.org/veterans-day.
Wider Efforts to House South Carolina's Veterans
Project ZERO's local push fits into a broader, uneven statewide and national picture. A 2023 report from FOX Carolina cited Department of Veterans Affairs data showing veteran homelessness had declined 11% nationwide, while noting the Upstate Continuum of Care's Effective Zero program had assisted 700 veterans in the Upstate and Midlands since 2018, with more than 60% documented as permanently housed. That same report said the Upstate Continuum met its 2022 goal of housing more than 323 veterans, even as 128 veterans remained on its active waiting list at the time.
Elsewhere in the Lowcountry, the national nonprofit Tunnel to Towers purchased a 98-unit hotel in North Charleston in 2024 with plans to convert it into permanent housing for veterans, according to ABC News 4, which reported the organization broke ground on a related Veterans Village project that October. Tunnel to Towers said it provided housing assistance and access to supportive services to more than 3,300 veterans in 2023 alone, and more than 5,000 since the program began.
