(Estherville)– Music students from Iowa Lakes Community College will once again this year participate in a welcome home program for veterans returning from a visit to Washington D.C.
The Brushy Creek Honor Flight program helps fly veterans to visit war memorials and Arlington National Cemetery at no cost to them.
More than 150 veterans spend the day in Washington, D.C., and upon their return to Fort Dodge, they receive a hero’s welcome home ceremony that includes a band concert. Carol Ayres, Instrumental Music Professor at Iowa Lakes Community College, says this is about the fourth year now students from Iowa lakes have participated in the event…
“Community people from all over the area who want to participate just come together and we play patriotic music while the families wait for their heroes to come home. And then while the heroes are announced, they tell their name, their rank and their military service and they depart from the plane and people cheer and scream and we just keep playing patriotic music as background music while they all unload from the plane and it’s just a really neat experience for the families, for the heroes and for the general community who want to come and watch.”
Ayres says it’s a very fulfilling experience for everyone involved…
“Well the students think it’s really neat. They’re never, the freshmen or the people who have never done it aren’t always so sure but as soon as we come back they think it’s just been a really cool experience. We sometimes get to talk to some of those heroes in the lobby of the airport when it’s done and they’re the ones who are so appreciative and they make our students and the community band members, just make them really feel like they’ve been appreciated. The one who seem to be touched the most are the Vietnam vets because they feel like they finally get a welcome home concert that they didn’t get years ago and they’re the ones who track down my students and personally thank them and so that for my students it’s really good because then they have that interaction with those people and, because they may not have ever met someone who has served in the Vietnam War.”
The welcome home ceremony for the Brushy Creek Honor Flight will be held this Saturday evening at the Fort Dodge Airport beginning at about 9:30 pm. Ayres says musicians from throughout the region are invited to perform in the concert as well. She says anyone wishing to perform should be there by 9:00 pm Saturday.
