Multiple donations at Honor Flight breakfast will help finance more veteran flights
It was a capacity crowd at the monthly Honor Flight Kern County breakfast Thursday morning at the Elks Lodge in downtown Bakersfield.
A big crowd showed up for what the organization’s founder Lili Marsh called “a big day” for Honor Flight.
The “big” part started rolling when executives from Adventist Health, led by Jason Wells, president of the company’s Central California network, presented an oversize check for $10,000 in support of the nonprofit’s ongoing efforts to fly thousands of local military veterans to the nation’s capital to see the memorials.
All free to the veterans.
A collective gasp seemed to come from the crowd when the 5-digit number was revealed. But the surprises weren’t over. Not by a long shot.
Next, a donation of $1,500 was announced from the Jones family of American Business Machines, in honor of a late relative who flew 51 missions during World War II as a rear-gunner in an American bomber.
Then, Lynn Eckert, a U.S. Marine veteran and Honor Flight Kern County’s east Kern outreach specialist, presented a check made out to Honor Flight in the amount of $13,500. Eckert said the generous donation came from the Tehachapi City Council.
“I work very closely with the city of Tehachapi, and they decided they wanted to donate $13,500 to Honor Flight — $7,500 to send five veterans from Tehachapi to Washington, D.C., and $6,000 to finance the mayor, the city manager and three board members to go as guardians.”
They want to be able to experience Honor Flight firsthand, to be able to continue to give to Honor Flight in the future, she said.
In one of the most touching moments of the day, children and adults from St. John’s Lutheran School were there to donate $6,025, all raised by the families of the 400 or so students who attend St. John’s.
“The children at the school were all asked to bring their age
in dollars. And that’s how they raised $6,025,” said Honor Flight volunteer Karen Galyan.
Local Republican Assemblyman Vince Fong, who is currently ahead in the race to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who resigned from Congress at the end of last year, also showed up Thursday to give $5,000 to the Honor Flight cause.
But it still wasn’t over.
A group of local Vietnam veterans, who call themselves the Rat Pack, announced yet another check for some $22,000, a little more than half coming from calendar sales and the balance donated by North Bakersfield Toyota.
Throw in two $300 donations from Kern City and the Buffalo Soldiers and the day’s donations were not too far short of $60,000.
“It was a big day,” said a stunned Lili Marsh, founder and executive director of Honor Flight Kern County.
“It gives us a great sense of security going into 2024.”
Indeed, a flight from Bakersfield to the Washington, D.C., area is already scheduled to depart April 22. And a second flight is being organized for sometime in October.
And there’s always the chance of a third flight.
“Last year we added the all-Native American flight,” Marsh said. “So you never know.”
Plans for 2025 are already brewing as well, and new opportunities to serve Kern County’s veterans are always arising.
No one is paid at the nonprofit. It runs on the sweat of volunteers and the generosity of donors, so every dollar raised goes to support the Honor Flight mission.
It’s a mission that appears to have captured the hearts of Kern’s residents, business owners and corporate leaders.