It has been a year since First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden began the “Joining Forces” initiative. Over the past year, the First Lady and Dr. Biden traveled across America to encourage people to support military families.

The First Lady is celebrating the first anniversary of Joining Forces by taking a two-day, four-state tour. On Wednesday, April 11, Mrs. Obama led a White House ceremony, where she recognized businesses, community groups, and other organizations who strived to help members of the armed forces, Veterans, and military families.

After the ceremony, the First Lady and Dr. Biden proceeded to Pennsylvania, New York, Louisiana, and Florida. In addition to celebrating “all things military,” they announced two new milestones for the initiative.

The first is a commitment made by nursing organizations and nursing schools regarding training nurses to recognize and care for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. The other one is the hiring of the fifty thousandth person under a pledge made by the president last summer, which sought to promote the employment or training of 100,000 more Veterans and military spouses by the end of next year.

Rene Campos of the Military Officers Association of America shared: “That’s an incredible thing to happen when only 1 percent has served… This is a good way to share with the other 99 percent of the country what it means to live in military life and be a veteran and be a family member of those who have served.”