There’s no better place to be than home for the holidays and one non-profit is on a campaign to reunite 500 service members, veterans, and families this holiday season.
Luke’s Wings has launched this year’s No Soldier Spends Christmas Alone campaign. The effort allows donors to choose to give the gift of flight this Christmas and reunite wounded service members with their loved ones so that all families may be together during this special time of year.
Luke’s Wings was founded in January of 2008 and is named in honor of Army veteran Luke Shirley, who received care for the injuries he sustained in battle at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
“Our mission was to reunite moms and wives and spouses of our service members who wee wounded in battle, our wounded warriors and to bring them into Walter Reed,“ explained Luke’s Wings CEO Fletcher Gill.
During lunch with Sara Wingfeld, a former Washington Football Team cheerleader ambassador in December of 2007, Gill learned that family members of wounded service members like Shirley were onsite providing care and support to their injured loved ones at the medical center.
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“I said that blows my mind,” recalled Gill. “I said, let’s go up to Walter Reed and offer to buy some plane tickets to get those moms and dads and spouses home and set up some rotation plans so it makes it easier on them.”
During its first year, Luke’s Wings made 19 flights in and out of Walter Reed.
“Now, we’re 13,000 flights in,” said Gill. “We’re doing something like 30 to 40 flights a day. Our goal is 500 flights around the holidays and 2,000 flights a year.”
The nonprofit currently provides flights into and out of 12 military hospitals and partners with Special Operations Command.
“We’re doing flights for our special operators, Navy SEALs, black ops missions,” he said. “We are a partner of VA and we are providing flights for our veterans in hospice care.”
Gill stressed that Luke’s Wings especially wants to hear from World War II and Korean War veterans in hospice care.
“We want to make sure that you are not alone when you pass away,” he said. “We’ve expanded our mission. It’s always going to be flights, that’s our DNA, but we’ve expanded our mission outside of just Walter Reed. It really expands the scope to wounded, ill, and injured service members anywhere in the world.”
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Luke’s Wings is a small organization of six people which Gill describes as the little dog that doesn’t know its size.
“We go for broke,” he continued. “We say yes to every single flight request we get. We figure it out later. It’s kind of like a marriage in sense. Two of our staff members in the office are booking flights all day and the other four are trying to raise money.”
Gill said the average flight cost is around $350.
“We’re able to stretch the dollars because we have wonderful relationships with Delta and United and other airlines and we have a really great travel agency that works with us to find the best flights,” he continued.
Currently, because of the COVID pandemic, the pilot shortage, and the increased cost of flights during the holidays, flights can range between $2,000 to $2,500, bringing the cost for a flight for a family to between $8,000 and $10,000.
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“We’re asking everybody, in a general context, to consider donating $12 a month,” said Gill. “That’s the number that gets us there, It’s symbolic for the 12 Days of Christmas.”
Donations are welcome in any amount, however. You can also choose to reunite a service member with their family on Christmas morning in honor or in memory of your loved one.
“We will send you an ornament and acknowledgment card that explains what you did in honor or memory of your loved in and you can present that in lieu of a traditional gift,” explained Gill.
You can donate here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.