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HANCOCK -- Upper Peninsula Honor Flight President Scott Knauf flew from Escanaba to the Houghton County Memorial Airport Saturday morning to personally accept a $5,316 donation raised by the Church of the Resurrection Fellowship Committee.
Knauf arrived at the Quincy Street parish at 8:00 a.m. Saturday to receive the check, which represents the entire net proceeds from the church's recent “Crock and Rocker” Fall Fashion Show.
"The way that we get support from across the Upper Peninsula allows us to continue our missions," Knauf said. He noted that the non-profit organization receives no structural government funding and operates entirely on grassroots volunteer labor.
According to Knauf, each individual Honor Flight now costs $135,000 to operate. With the organization hosting two flights per year to escort regional military veterans to Washington, D.C., the annual operational overhead reaches $270,000.
"That's $270,000 that we have to come up with," Knauf stated. "So this donation is amazing, that people are willing to put all the effort into it, then just turn all the funds over to us. If we had to do all the fundraising and do the flights, there's no way it would happen, because we're all volunteers and we all work full-time jobs."
The fundraiser was built around a collaborative style presentation featuring seasonal collections from Crock & Rocker, a commercial boutique and gift shop located in Michigamme. In addition to providing the wardrobe lines for local models, the boutique owners contributed a direct $300 donation to the church’s fundraising pool.
Loretta Pagioni, representing the Church of the Resurrection Fellowship Committee, stated that the final $5,316 total incorporates standard admission sales alongside substantial independent contributions from area residents.
"It was from Crock and Rocker, a fashion show from Michigamme, and all the proceeds were donated to the U.P. Honor Flight for our veterans," Pagioni said. "A lot of people weren't going to come to the show, so they gave donations instead."
Pagioni noted that the logistical preparation for the event required an intensive local effort, with members of the parish’s Fellowship Committee cooking and baking for two weeks in advance of the doors opening to the public.
The Upper Peninsula Honor Flight utilizes community contributions to underwrite the complete transit, medical, and lodging costs associated with flying regional veterans to national war memorials free of personal charge. Pagioni indicated that the Hancock parish remains one of the primary fundraising contributors to the veterans’ flight network within the western northern region.