First Navy Week Sails into Wichita

WICHITA, Kan. – Sailors from across the United States will be in Wichita and Hutchinson, Kan., Sept. 9-15 for the region’s first Navy Week. Wichita-based Greteman Group will provide on-the-ground support leading up to and during the event.

“Navy Weeks help build and strengthen local ties, and we consider it an honor to serve as a community liaison for this signature outreach program,” says Sonia Greteman, agency president. “As a landlocked community, most Wichitans aren’t as aware of Navy activities as we are other branches of the service.”

Navy Week includes roughly 75 outreach events with corporate, civic, government, education, media, veterans, community service and diversity organizations in the city. The Wichita Navy Week is scheduled to feature:

• Senior Navy leadership
• Sailors from the newly commissioned USS Wichita (LCS 13) (the newest, very high-tech ship platform)
• Sailors from the oldest warship afloat, USS Constitution (sailors dress in 1813-era uniforms)
• Sailors from Coastal Riverine Group (CRG) 1 (based in San Diego, called the Brown Water Navy)
• Navy Band performances (30-member band performs together and also creates various ensembles ranging from rock and jazz to New Orleans-style brass and woodwind)
• Ceremonial Guard Drill Team performances (precision drills highlight Navy professionalism)
• Exhibit by Naval History and Heritage Command (conduct STEM-related interactive projects with school children)
• Office of Small Business Programs symposium (workshop helps small area businesses learn how to obtain contract work for the Navy)

In addition to events throughout greater Wichita, Navy units will be at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson. Outreach will include patriotic and veterans’ events on 9/11. Navy Weeks focus a variety of outreach assets, equipment and personnel on a single city for a weeklong series of engagements with key influencers and diverse organizations. In addition to presentations to school children, the units can work hands on with law enforcement officers and emergency medical services.

“The 2019 schedule has been exciting for us,” said Lt. John Stevens, NAVCO Navy Week program manager. “We ventured outside the continental U.S. for the first time in our program’s history with Puerto Rico Navy Week, and we’re taking the program to new places like Grand Junction, Colorado, and Wichita.”

Since 2005, the Navy Week program has served as the primary outreach effort into areas of the country without a significant Navy presence. More than 230 Navy Weeks have been held to date. As many as 15 Navy Weeks run each year.

“Navy Weeks are designed to help Americans understand why having a strong Navy is critical to the American way of life,” said Cmdr. Linda Rojas, director of the Navy Office of Community Outreach (NAVCO), which plans and executes the Navy Week program. “Because the Navy is concentrated primarily in select locations on both coasts, we’re challenged to communicate our mission away from fleet concentration areas. That’s where the Navy Week program comes in.”

For more information on Navy Weeks and the 2019 schedule, visit http://outreach.navy.mil/Navy-Weeks-2019/. #NavyWeek, @NavyOutreach

ABOUT GRETEMAN GROUP

Greteman Group has developed an international reputation as an aviation-specialty marketing agency based in Wichita, Kan. – the Air Capital. Leading aircraft manufacturers, flight support, aftermarket services, fractional ownership, insurance, in-flight Wi-Fi, regional airlines and airport analytics have entrusted their brands to Greteman Group. Clients include FlightSafety International, SmartSky Networks, Wichita Eisenhower National Airport, USAIG, King Aerospace, Piedmont Airlines, Aviation Partners and APiJET. It also supports causes and clients such as Saint Francis Ministries, Mark Arts, the City of Wichita, Hutton, GLMV Architecture, MKEC Engineering, AGC of Kansas and Celebrity Cruises. Greteman Group has won Telly, Internet Advertising Competition, Metro and Business Marketing Association Pro-Comm awards. It has been recognized in such publications as Adweek, Advertising Age, Aldus, Communication Arts, Designing Identity, Identity, Graphic Design USA, Graphis, Hotels, HOW, Novum, Print, Step-By-Step, and by such organizations as the Mead Top 60, Kansas City Art Directors, Strathmore, International Festivals, Graphex Art Directors, and The National Library Council, American Advertising Federation, American Institute of Graphic Artists, Public Relations Society of America, and American Marketing Association. The firm is a founding member of the Wichita Aero Club. Greteman Group is a longstanding member of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and is a certified women-owned business enterprise (WBE). The agency celebrated its 30th anniversary April 1, 2019. gretemangroup.com