THANKS: From Honor Flight

The Oct. 8, fifth annual Inland Northwest Honor Flight Fundraiser was a success, despite a few accidental setbacks during the evening. You needed to be there to understand. The reservation computer program crashed that afternoon, which, when supposedly fixed, separated husbands from wives, and couples hoping to share a table with former friends ended up making new friends, and some attendees were even assigned to tables that didn’t exist. Problems ricocheted from there. But, most attendees said they had a wonderful time and took it all in stride.

Despite some of the embarrassing things that went wrong, the committee raised more than $72,500 to pass on to Inland Northwest Honor Flight, whose hub centers around the Spokane International Airport. That translates to 72 grateful veterans from Eastern Washington and North Idaho who will be able to take their Honor Flights in 2017.

Ten disappointed Idaho attendees turned their frustrations into motivations to make the Spokane-dominated event better and volunteered to join two of us from Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene, to help with the 2017 fundraiser. One of these is a retired professional event planner. What a blessing. I’m so proud of the “can do” attitude of fellow Idahoans and am so optimistic that the 2017 fundraiser is going to be “over the top.”

I want to thank the generosity of so many Idahoans. More than $12,000 in donations passed through my hands, and we had a significant presence among the attendees who bid high on many auction items.

We welcome more volunteers, and, of course, we need auction items and cash donations. Anyone who is interested is welcome to contact me at [email protected]. And, for more information about the program, please go to www.inwhonorflight.org.

BARB NELSON

Inland Northwest Honor Flight Volunteer

Coeur d’Alene