VILLAGE OF FAYETTEVILLE – Last week Honor Flight Syracuse accepted from TOMRA one of the largest single donations it has ever received.
At its offices in Fayetteville’s Towne Center the morning of Tuesday, July 25, the global recycling and sorting company presented the regional hub in the national Honor Flight Network with a check from Bottle & Can Retrieval Centers in the amount of $24,996.46.
That gift represented the proceeds from a bottle and can drive called “Yes We CAN for Veterans” held the weekend of April 14 through 17 this most recent spring. During that stretch of days, TOMRA teamed up with Destiny USA to gather recyclables and raise money at both TOMRA redemption centers in the greater Syracuse area and in that shopping mall’s parking lot at the corner of Solar Street and Hiawatha Boulevard.
Jim Meola, the redemption director for TOMRA, said the turnout from Central New Yorkers that weekend was “impressive” and “a little overwhelming,” that success owing in part to publicity generated beforehand.
“We’re really excited about the outpouring from the community,” Meola said. “People brought pickup truck loads and trailer loads—it was just amazing.”
For the fundraiser, a penny was donated for every can that passed through a TOMRA-connected redemption center.
According to Meola, the total amount of money raised through three separate drives dating back to April 2022 has eclipsed the $64,000 mark, with all of that going toward Honor Flight Syracuse.
A fourth drive benefiting Honor Flight will be taking place in September, so Meola recommends that people save up and store away their bottles and cans for the rest of the summer until that collection. He said that by that time his company will be prepared with bigger trucks to accommodate the volume of recyclables surrendered.
“Every time, the amount of money they raise continues to increase—who knows what the sky is on this one,” said Rob Schoeneck, the vice president of Honor Flight Syracuse. “We as a group couldn’t be more thankful for all they’ve done for us.”
In recognition of their military service and sacrifices, Syracuse’s completely volunteer Honor Flight organization books veterans residing anywhere from Cortland County up to Canada for flights to Washington, D.C., to see the memorials for the wars in which they fought, all at no cost to them.
During each mission, as they’re called, the veterans disembark from a bus at every stop. Over the course of the day, they visit the World War II memorial at the National Mall, then the Vietnam War and Korean War memorials, then the Iwo Jima statue, and then usually the Air Force and Navy memorials before stopping in front of the Pentagon.
Jeff Bastable, the director of philanthropy for Honor Flight Syracuse, said the check presented last week will be used to cover the American Airlines plane tickets and the cost of chartering four buses along with park police escorts and food for the veterans, some of whom are not as mobile as others, he said.
The next mission—the Syracuse hub’s 19th in its 11-year history—is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 30, just a handful of days after the next recyclable drive. The return trip is the same day, and a welcome home is always held in the evening at the airport.
There are typically 190 veterans onboard for each mission, and eight to 10 nurses are brought along for the trip to accompany anyone in need of assistance.
Nationally, 275,000 veterans have been transported to the nation’s capital courtesy of the 130 Honor Flight hubs in the United States. So far, Honor Flight Syracuse has taken 1,400 veterans there according to Bastable.
“We really want to back the veterans and be part of honoring what they’ve done for us to allow us to have the freedoms we have today,” Meola said.
Priority for each Honor Flight mission is given to elder World War II veterans, Korean War veterans and terminally ill veterans from any conflict.