The 4 th Veterans Honor Flight of Southern Illinois will depart Veterans Airport in Marion on Tuesday, October 16. While they are away, volunteers will be busy preparing for the Welcome Home event.
“For Flight #1, we had three volunteers. The outpouring of support from the public was incredible, but we learned we needed more planning and more volunteers” stated Tracey Glenn, Welcome Home Organizer. “Now we have a committee of ten who work year-round to plan each Welcome Home event.”
“We are so fortunate to have 17 groups and 300+ volunteers to help us carry out the Welcome Home event” stated Maddy Hileman, Volunteer Coordinator for the Welcome Home event. “Our biggest volunteer base is the Wal-Mart crew with over 70 team members from 11 stores.”
Other volunteer groups include Peoples National Bank, Heartland Regional Medical Center, Rides Mass Transit, Banterra Bank, Hire Level, Heartland Rotary, Hospice of Southern Illinois, Prairie Cardiovascular, and Liberty Village. All volunteers will be wearing orange lanyards to help the public identify them if assistance is needed. Planning Committee members will be wearing orange volunteer shirts.
Area Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops as well as groups representing local veteran organizations will also be on-site to assist.
“We also want to thank our local first responders, Sheriff Deputies, Carbondale ROTC, and of course the wonderful Airport staff. These groups help us provide a safe and fun event and help ease the flow of traffic into and out of the Airport grounds” stated Glenn. “We could not carry out an event of this magnitude without the help of these groups.”
Veterans Honor Flight of Southern Illinois is committed to honoring WWII and Korean veterans or any veteran with a terminal illness.
Veterans Honor Flight of Southern Illinois is an established 501c3 non-profit hub of the Honor Flight network. All expenses for this one day trip are covered by Veterans Honor Flight of Southern Illinois including the flight, ground transportation, meals and beverages. The trip is provided absolutely free of charge to the veterans.
Veterans Honor Flight of Southern Illinois is implemented solely by volunteers with 96.5 cents of every dollar donated going straight to the Veterans.
For additional information or to apply to become a Guardian, Volunteer or Honor Flight Veteran,
visit our website www.veteranshonorflight.org
