A few more thoughts on Honor Flight

I've had a few more minutes to collect my thoughts on Honor Flight so thought I'd share with you in the blogsphere.
Another WDAY WWII Honor Flight is history and is it a cliche to say this was our best one yet? I've felt that way about each of our 4 trips! We have had the pleasure of taking about 675 WWII veterans from North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota to the Memorial since May of 2007. They are the most incredible group of men and women that I have ever met. Humble, grateful, gracious, funny, sweet and caring. To say that it's been lifechanging also sounds like a cliche but it's not an overstatement. I went into this project knowing very little about these veterans. I knew what I knew about the war from history class and Hollywood. But I didn't know the stories of the men who won the war: The soft spoken Minnesota farm boy who stayed behind with a buddy during the Battle of the Bulge because 'nobody should die alone.' He survived three nights alone in the cold, his uniform so caked with ice that the medics had to cut it off. I'll never forget the smiling veteran from Jamestown who told me how only 5 men in his 65 man company walked away from Iwo Jima uninjured. I sensed he still holds many secrets behind his sparkling blue eyes. Or another perpetually upbeat veteran from our first flight who comes to the airport to say 'so long' to subsequent Honor Flight travelers. The list goes on and on and on. I am simply blessed to have met such American heroes.
 
I am also blessed to have met and worked with such amazing people on the Honor Flight committee both at the national and local level. They have not received the recognition they so richly deserve. Talk about people you'd like to be in the trenches with. They'll always hold a special place in my heart. And simply not enough can be said for our amazing community which answered the called and raised $600,000 in a year to make the trips happen.
 
WDAY will not be doing anymore Honor Flights from Fargo. Our project was set up for the short run, an effort to get a lot of vets to Washington fast. While I'm disappointed to know that we're "officially" done, I'm heartened to know that neighboring cities are picking up the torch and running with it. Beth Bouley from Grand Forks (about 80 miles north of us) is starting flights there and officials in Sioux Falls, South Dakota are in the process of planning trips down there. Minnesota also has trips up and running. I'm happy to know the effort to send 'our boys' from the midwest to the memorial continues. Thanks to all!
 
 

Posted by: infoteam on 5/9/2008 at 1:45 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Honor Flight #4

 A long overdue thank you to all who made Honor Flight #4 a huge success. We got back on Saturday night from another whirlwind tour of Washington DC with a great group of WWII veterans from our region.

Once again, our committee came back from the trip completely impressed with these amazing men and women!

They are generous, grateful and heroic.

Thanks should go out to our major sponsors and our community for raising $600,000 over the last year.

And I can never thank our committee enough for all the hard work.

More needs to be said. But believe it or not I'm still swamped these days with Honor Flight wrap up and new and exciting changes with our show. I gotta go!

Posted by: infoteam on 5/8/2008 at 9:07 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Coffee Syrup, ReStore, and Health Screening

A busy day today on the show. We want to pass along some information for you.

1) The curbs are full of junk this week for Clean-up week in Fargo-Moorhead. But did you know that much of what you're throwing out can be recycled? Habitat for Humanity runs the ReStore. At Habitat ReStore area homeowners get quality construction materials at bargain prices.

Habitat ReStore gladly accepts a number of items including:

For more information about what they accept and how to donate your items call 284-5253 or go to lakeagassizhabitat.org.

2) The American Heart Association wants you to know your numbers!

Go Red North Dakota in partnership with the Dakota Medical Foundation will be offering a community heart health screening May 14. This screening, geared toward women age 35  54 will be offered for a charge of $15 and includes a complete fasting cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure. Women will receive their test results within 15 minutes.

 

The screening will take place May 14 from - at FM Ambulance. Women are required to pre register for the screening. There are a limited number of screenings available and appointments are necessary.

 

One out of three women will die from heart disease yet only 13%  realize that heart disease is their number one health risk. Learn your personal risk of heart disease.  Call Holly at 701-241-8576 to make your appointment.

 

For more information on Go Red North Dakota visit www.GoRedND.com.

3) Meritcare is offering classes in Intuitive Eating. That's the philosophy that if you pay more attention to your food you might just eat more healthfully. Check out www.meritcare.com for more information.

4) Rob, Daryl and I have a new love. I guess it's not that new for Rob, a native New Englander. But for Daryl and I, Midwesterners that we are, it's new. It's called "Autocrat Coffee Syrup" YUM. I'm not a coffee drinker, but it's pretty good. As I've always said, if you add enough sugar to anything it's good. To learn more about it, just go to www.autocrat.com.

 

Posted by: infoteam on 5/8/2008 at 8:14 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

Prom Pictures

Our question of the day today involved memories of your prom and I promised I would share a couple of picture.

                    

          Junior Prom 1986             Oh what I would give to have that hair back!

                            And of course me with the Vista Cruiser, what a car!!

                               

Thanks to everyone who called in and shared and Kerstin, Lyle, Mike and Daryl for their input as well.

                                                                               

Posted by: Rob Kupec on 5/2/2008 at 1:37 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink

Paul and Larry the Cable Guy

Some of you have asked me lately "what happened to Paul?"

Last week Paul announced that he was leaving WDAY to work with Scott Hennen at his new station.

He'll certainly be missed. Paul was a great teacher to a radio rookie like me. But more than that he's been a great friend. I wish him the best and told him I'll now have to resort to being a groupie for his band to see him on a regular basis.

On another matter, let's hear it for Larry the Cable Guy! He's at the Fargodome on Sunday. His real name is Dan Whitney and he's from Nebraska. The Whitney family is financing the first ever Honor Flight out of Nebraska. I've been working with the organizers down there and they said the family is picking up the tab for the entire trip. Way to go!

Posted by: infoteam on 4/24/2008 at 5:20 AM | Permalink