The Northern Valley Honor Flight committee is asking for help to meet an urgent deadline as it prepares to fly a group of WWII veterans to Washington, D.C. this spring. A charter flight has been secured for the April 17 & 18 flight, but a remaining balance of $75,000 is due in full by mid February,
Although several fundraising projects are in the works, donations are needed now to avoid losing the contract on the airplane. Over 130 World War II Veterans from our area have applied for consideration for the trip to Washington, D.C. This is an aging population and the window of opportunity for many of them is getting smaller every day. It would be heartbreaking to have to cancel the flight because of a lack of funds.
There is no cost for World War II Veterans for their flight, accommodations and meals from the time they leave Grand Forks for Washington, D.C. until their return. This is a way of paying a small tribute to those that gave so much for their country. Northern Valley Honor Flight is a proud affiliate of Honor Flight Network™.
Donations can be dropped off at the Grand Forks Park District, 1210 7th Avenue South, mailed to P.O. Box 12905, Grand Forks, ND, 58208-2905 or online at www.nvhonorflight.com. Anyone interested in hosting a fundraiser for this project should contact us at 701-741-4571.
Article in GF Herald-
http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=102946§ion=News
Organizers are making a final push for donations to send area World War II veterans on an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorial to their wartime service and sacrifice.
Diane Blair of East Grand Forks, president of Northern Valley Honor Flight, said the group still needs to raise about $40,000 by mid-February to pay for the April 17-18 charter flight that will carry as many as 90 veterans. Most have never seen the memorial, which wasn't finished until 2004 — almost 60 years after their war ended.
More donations will be needed to cover costs of food, hotel rooms and ground transportation. In all, organizers are looking to raise about $250,000 to send two flights to Washington, said Barbara Zavala, Veterans Services Officer for Grand Forks County and another Honor Flight organizer. The trip will be free to participating vets.
So far, 125 area veterans have applied to go on the trip.
"I'm 100 percent confident that we'll get there," Blair said Wednesday, referring to the group's fundraising goals. "This is such an important project, I know the community will come forward and make sure it happens."
Organizers are enlisting corporate sponsors, and individuals or organizations willing to "adopt" a veteran can provide $750 to allow one vet to make the trip. One fundraiser involves a scrap metal drive, reminiscent of the war on the home front. Raffle tickets, with the winner getting two seats on the plane, are being sold at the Grand Forks County Veterans Services Office and some businesses.
Veterans interested in applying to participate in the flight may call (701) 741-4571 or log on to www.nvhonorflight.com.
A welcome home
Previous Honor Flights out of the region have been emotional affairs, for the organizers as well as for the veterans and their families. Many vets opened up for the first time about their wartime experiences, and many were moved to tears by the memorial's Freedom Wall, where 4,000 gold stars — each representing 100 Americans killed in the war — recall the gold stars placed in the windows of families who lost a loved one.
When veterans on an Honor Flight returned to Rochester, Minn., last October, they were met by hundreds of people who whistled, whooped and applauded as each veteran stepped off the chartered aircraft.
One of the returning vets was Floyd Nord, 82, who spent a year aboard a battleship in the South Pacific and was in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese formally surrendered Nov. 2, 1945.
Returning to cheers was as important as seeing the memorial. "This is the biggest welcome most of us have ever seen," Nord told the Rochester Post-Bulletin. "I didn't see anything like this when I arrived home" after the war.
One of the first area flights was organized in Waconia, Minn., in April 2007, a one-day "lightning flight" that mustered 120 veterans at 4:30 a.m.
They were as excited as schoolboys. "It's a fantasy come true," veteran Elgin Dirks, then 80, told the Star Tribune before the flight. "I'd never go by myself. And I so want to see it."
To help pay the way, the children of Waconia collected $14,000 by pooling spare change. A wounded Iraq war veteran, home on leave, donated $500. Doctors, nurses and members of the local Lions Club volunteered to go along to monitor and reassure the vets, many of whom were frail.
Their bus to the airport had a sheriff's escort, and when they returned to Waconia, the streets were lined with people for a candlelight parade.
Chuck Anderson, an elementary school principal in Waconia, was one of the organizers.
"About 20 of the veterans who went have passed away since the trip," he said Wednesday. "In their obituaries, it's always mentioned how important that day was to them. Some had videos of the trip that were played at their funerals."
Some urgency
Blair said her father is a veteran of the Korean War, and her two sons served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I understand what the veterans have gone through, and I know we can never do enough to say thank you to these men and women," she said.
She agrees there is urgency to the project.
More than three-fourths of the 16 million who served during World War II have died, and the surviving veterans — the youngest in their early 80s — are dying at a rate more than 1,000 a day.
"When you see the looks on the faces of these men and women when they hear about the flight, when you hear their stories, you are totally moved," she said.
"They are incredible heroes. Since I've gotten involved with this, I look at the obituaries a whole different way. I cringe every time I see one in the paper and it's a World War II veteran, knowing he probably didn't have a chance to see the memorial."
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