Assemblywoman Addie Russell is inviting women military veterans to Albany for a luncheon June 12.

“I will be holding a luncheon in the Legislative Office Building in Albany to thank our women veterans for their service and acknowledge their sacrifices and their contributions to our country,” Russell, a Carthage Democrat, said in announcing the event.

“After the luncheon, we will honor their service on the floor of the Assembly with a resolution. We currently have troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to tens of thousands more stationed worldwide. Every day, these soldiers who include women make tremendous sacrifices serving our country.”

Russell said New York State is home to over one million veterans including about 68,000 women veterans. “They are grandmothers, mothers, daughters, aunts, cousins, co-workers, friends and neighbors, ordinary citizens who have served in extraordinary ways to preserve our freedoms and liberties.”

Russell said Albany should honor them by adopting legislative measures that are meaningful “so that they know their service was not in vain and unacknowledged.”

Russell wants any woman who has served to contact her office -- 315-786-0284, 315-386-2037, or russella@assembly.state.ny.us – “so we can add your name to our mailing list and encourage you to attend our luncheon.”