FRESNO, Calif. (KMJ) — The Central Valley Honor Flight was in danger of being grounded, with a deadline by the end of July 7th unless last minute donations came through on Monday.
Paul Loeffler is the founder of The Central Valley Honor Flight that honors our veterans by sending them to visit Washington DC to tour their memorials at no cost.
On Sunday, CV Honor Flight organizers updated the tally, saying they had received tons of donations and the fundraising total was $115,000.
It was a big step forward, but by Monday morning CV Honor Flight organizers still needed $35,000 to send 70 Valley veterans to Washington D.C. this fall.
Early Monday morning, KMJ ran the story on Fresno Morning News, and ABC 30 , our news partner ran the story through its newscasts all day. One person reached out to KMJ’s Traffic man Greg Lane – Dusty, who is blind, needed help as he wanted to arrange to donate $6000 to cover the trip for four veterans.
Then at 3:00pm on Monday, Loeffler joined the Afternoon Drive with Philip Teresi, and spoke about the looming Tuesday, July 7th deadline. Loeffler said they were receiving a number of donations and were just $5000 shy of the total goal. He said people were donating anything they could – even $5 or $10 dollars.
Fresno County Supervisor Garry Bredefeld heard the KMJ broadcast and about the need for more donations. He called in to the Afternoon Drive and pledged the final amount, $5000, to bring all the veterans to Washington D.C.
Paul Loeffler spoke about Bredefeld’s donation:
Loeffler says there is still a need to keep funding these flights so that Valley veterans can make the journey to Washington D.C.
If you’d like to help donations can be made to cvhonorflight.org
