The Daily Voice
The owners of a Yonkers casino will help give a group of wounded war veterans the star treatment Wednesday.
The Rooney Family, owners of Empire City Casino, will treat several troops who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as their families, to lunch at New York City’s Tribeca Grill.
The lunch, at the famous eatery owned by actor Robert De Niro, is part of a trip organized by the Baltimore Police Department to bring veterans living at the Walter Reed Medical Center to New York City.
Accompanying the troops and their families to Manhattan will be NASCAR driver Kurt Busch and members of the Armed Forces Foundation. They will be escorted from Maryland through Delaware, New Jersey and into New York by various police departments who have partnered with Baltimore police.
Once in New York City, troops will be given a tour of the 9/11 Memorial and enjoy a three-course lunch sponsored by Empire City Casino. Later, the group will head to the Ed Sullivan Theatre for a live taping of The David Letterman Show.
Organizers said the trip was a chance to give the veterans a day out of the hospital and enjoy New York City as tourists. Wednesday will mark the third year that Empire City Casino has participated.
“This was a small gesture compared to what these brave men and women have given of themselves,” Timothy Rooney, Jr. said last year following the event. “We are honored to have been given the opportunity to do this for them.”