During the week of Nov. 7-15, 2009,  the Georgia Aquarium is proud to recognize and show appreciation for our military personnel and their families through a specially discounted offer. By showing a Military ID, all ACTIVE , RETIRED and RESERVE personnel and their families will receive a Georgia Aquarium general admission ticket for only $20 as a special thank you, as well as a 10% discount in the Aquarium gift shops. For more details, please visit www.georgiaaquarium.org/mil.

Also, during this week be sure to visit the World of Coca-Cola (Nov. 7-14), where military personnel receive complimentary admission and up to four friends and family at 50% off. The National Museum of Patriotism and Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta will also have special offers. And don't forget military personnel and their families always receive a special offer from Inside CNN Studio Tour. For more information, visit each attraction’s Web site.

U.S. Armed Forces Celebration Day - Nov. 7, 2009, 12 - 4 p.m., Pemberton Place Park
Georgia Aquarium, in partnership with World of Coca-Cola, and along with a number of military personnel and equipment, will host its annual U.S. Armed Forces Celebration Day on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, from 12 - 4 p.m. in Pemberton Place Park, located between the Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola. The event is free and open to the public.

With a special focus on military appreciation, public support and education, the day will feature demonstrations with military personnel and equipment. Most military branches will be represented on-site with meet-and-greet booths, as well as representatives from local USO offices, Shepherd Center and SHARE and members of Operation Homefront. Stop by the Operation Give a Hug booth and support the children of deployed military personnel. Families are encouraged to come down early to enjoy the Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola, and then join us for an afternoon of fun and support in Pemberton Place Park. Meet members of Wounded Warriors Georgia, and sign the Operation Homefront banner, which will be sent to Afghanistan. Visitors to the event can also write a personalized message to the troops on postcards designed by children across Georgia through Xerox's Let's Say Thanks Program. The cards will be included in care packages sent to deployed troops around the globe through the military support organization Give2TheTroops®. 

Static displays and demonstrations will include a mock bunker and World War II Jeep. At 1 p.m., the Army National Guard Warrior Training Team from Ft. Benning will be repelling 70 feet down the World of Coca-Cola building. Also, make sure you're in attendance for the Army's flyover of Pemberton Place Park in a UH-60 or OH-58 helicopter.

About Shepherd Center and SHARE:
Shepherd Center is home to SHARE - a partnership between the military health care benefits program, philanthropist Bernie Marcus and private donations. Through SHARE, veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and chronic pain can get specialized, cutting-edge treatment at Shepherd Center, and receive housing assistance for themselves and their families.

About Xerox's Let's Say Thanks Program
To show the country’s appreciation to the hundreds of thousands of troops stationed overseas, Xerox Corporation has developed a nationwide program aimed at saying “thank you” to our troops. Through the Let’s Say Thanks program, postcards designed by children from across the country are available at www.LetsSayThanks.com for people to select their favorite and write a personalized message to troops. Xerox prints the cards on its paper and equipment, and sends them in care packages to deployed troops around the globe through military support organization Give2TheTroops®.

  About Operation Give a Hug:
  Operation Give a Hug is a non-profit, all-volunteer
  program established in 2004 to help comfort military
  children by giving them special dolls, often referred to
  by children as their daddy or mommy doll. Each doll 
  provides a place to put the photo of the deployed
  parent and gives a child a tangible way of relating to
  that parent. The goal of Operation Give a Hug is to
  give dolls to military children throughout the world who are missing Mom or Dad during the long deployments. Because this is an all-volunteer program, ALL donations go directly to providing dolls for children.