Honor Air, a program that raised funds for airfare for veterans to visit the Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, DC, will shift its focus. Honor Air was begun by Hendersonville dry cleaner owner and former Congressional candidate Jeff Miller. Miller offered the following:
“It’s not reasonable to expect donors to keep raising $50,000 or $60,000 a flight. We’d rather spend that money and the effort to help veterans get career training and a roof over their heads.”
The program, known as “Operation Welcome Home,” will attempt to raise substantial chunks of money for the Asheville-Buncombe County Christian Ministries’ program that provided job training for 413 veterans last year and placed 302. They spent $300,000, but Executive Director Scott Rogers said $500,000 was needed. Training at AB Tech for truck drivers or chefs can run in the thousands of dollars.
Honor Air will continue to raise funds for flying veterans to Washington, DC as well.
