“McCares Night” is being held at Marketplace McDonalds (located at the corner of Jefferson Road and Jay Scutti Drive) on Veterans Day to benefit Honor Flight Rochester. Between the hours of 4:30 and 7:30 pm on November 11, 2009, 10 cents of every dollar spent by patrons will be donated to Honor Flight to begin funding 2010 Honor Flights for Rochester area Veterans.
Honor Flight Rochester is one of 75 regional “hubs” in the national Honor Flight Network, dedicated to flying WWII Veterans to visit the Memorial built in their honor in 2004. Rochester’s operations were formed in 2008 after several local citizens accompanied their parents as Guardians on nationally sponsored “Honor Flights.”
This past year in the first full year of operations more than 250 Veterans flew from Rochester on 5 major Honor Flights. According to local leader Vince Hope, “plans are in place to fly 6 full flights next year, because we will have another 300 Veterans waiting in line by year’s end. But no flights go until they’re paid for – and its all by private donations from the community.”
The $450 to fly each Veteran comes from neighbors and friends, churches, fraternal groups, and Veterans Posts working to pay for their most senior members, according to Hope. “That’s why this generous offer from McDonald’s is so fitting for Veterans Day. It’s another way citizens and neighbors can reach out and thank the Greatest Generation for the sacrifices they made for all of us 6 decades ago.”
Patrons who visit the Marketplace McDonalds Wednesday evening will find local Honor Flight Volunteers working side by side with staff behind the counter. Applications to fly will be available for both Veterans and younger Guardians who accompany the senior travelers. And Honor Flight merchandise will also be available to those who make additional modest donations.
The public is invited to bring the family and honor a Veteran. “We all have family who fought for our freedoms in World War II,” says Hope. “These are our own parents and grandparents and great-grandparents who sacrificed more than we can ever know, so that we could enjoy the lives we have today. There’s so little time left to thank them.”
Veterans Day from 4:30 to 7:30pm is one time you can.
