The Right Men's Club of Collier County will host its ninth annual Salute to Veterans luncheon this Friday at the Hilton Naples, starting at 11:30 a.m., with retired Army Ranger Keni Thomas delivering the keynote address. Individual tickets cost $200, and proceeds will support college scholarships and services for local veterans.
According to Florida Weekly, the club has already provided more than $20,000 in scholarships and over $10,000 to veteran service programs this year. Tickets can be purchased through mensclubcc.org, the outlet reports.
A Battle of Mogadishu Veteran Takes the Podium
Thomas served in Task Force Ranger, the elite special operations unit tasked with locating and capturing Mohammed Farrah Aidid, according to Florida Weekly. He and fellow Rangers fought an 18-hour firefight during the Battle of Mogadishu, a clash the publication describes as the most intense urban combat since World War II and one chronicled in the bestselling book and film Black Hawk Down.
Thomas is a U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame inductee who received the Bronze Star with Valor and the American Patriot Award, Florida Weekly reports. His résumé also includes more than 400 parachute jumps, Belgian Commando School, and U.S. Navy dive school in Florida. He now serves as a national spokesperson for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a role the Three Rangers Foundation biography says he is proud to hold, and continues to support veterans and their families.
How Scholarship Funding Has Grown
The Special Operations Warrior Foundation says it provides full scholarships to children of special operations warriors who die in combat or training, covering the total cost of college education through grants rather than loans, and the awards can be applied at colleges, vocational-technical programs and career institutions. Over the past decade, 86% of its scholarship recipients attended college — 27 percentage points above the national average — and 93% of those who enrolled either graduated or remained in school, 33 points above the national norm, per the foundation.
The Right Men's Club has built its own scholarship program alongside its Salute to Veterans fundraiser, which the club says continues to provide the primary funding for its awards, according to mensclubcc.org. The club's total scholarship commitment for 2026 exceeds $32,000, the organization says. That growth follows a 2024 decision to raise the annual per-student award from $1,500 to $2,000, applied retroactively to students already receiving support — a year in which 10 students applied, more than double the prior year's total. The club has said its program expanded from four participating students and a $10,000 budget two years earlier to 11 students and a $22,000 budget by 2024.
Ticket Prices Have Climbed Since Last Year
Last year's eighth annual luncheon, held on November 7, 2025, at the same Naples Hilton, featured Congressman Byron Donalds as the featured speaker, according to the Collier County Clerk. The clerk's listing said all proceeds from that event would support veteran projects and initiatives in Collier County along with college scholarships. Regular tickets that year were priced at $175 and VIP tickets at $225, with the VIP option including access to a reception before the luncheon, according to mensclubcc.org's 2025 ticket listing. This year's $200 individual ticket price sits between those two prior tiers.
Event funds are solicited by the Men's Club of Collier County Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, according to the Men's Club of Collier County Foundation's own description. The luncheon remains the club's signature fundraiser, drawing on Thomas's combat record and his continued advocacy for military families to anchor a program organizers say keeps expanding its reach into local scholarships and veteran services.
