SPOTLIGHT: THE HEART OF SENIOR LIVING
Signing up now Operation September Freedom was born when Fisher noticed a marked decline in the numbers of WWII veterans taking dream flights. Current estimates predict that only 100,000 to 200,000 WWII vets will be left by the end of 2021. That’s just 1.2 percent of the original number of 16 million men and women who participated in WWII. Since the youngest living WWII veterans
are now 95 years old, Dream Flights is put- ting on a push to offer flights to remaining veterans. Flights will be offered from August 1 to
September 30, 2021. The timing commem- orates the signing on Sept. 2, 1945 of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, which effectively ended the war. Dream Flights will be signing people up
in April and May and then planning the itinerary in June, based on the locations of those who want to fly. “We’ll come to them,” Fisher says. A team of volunteer pilots will traverse the country in six vintage restored Stear- man biplanes. The open-cockpit planes are the same
kind used to train aviators in the 1930s and ’40s. Flights will be given at local and regional airports in locations convenient for participating senior living communities.
A community celebration Dream Flights partners with senior living communities to streamline the process. It helps them to reach more people who may no longer have the ability to hop in their car and take off on an adventure. The partnerships also help with logistics.
“It allows us to be much more efficient because the communities and their staff be- come an extension of our volunteer base,” Fisher says. “Senior living communities have been wonderful.” Community staff members bring the
Charlie Stratton, a resident of Windsor at Ortega, a Legend Senior Living community, served in the Mediterranean in 1946 and 1947 and retired as a U.S. Navy Captain in 1977.
veterans to the airport on flight day, invite family members to attend, plan festivities and create publicity around the event. One community arranged for the 82nd
Airborne All American Chorus to perform. Others have invited color guards, VFW groups, and bands. All those extras turn the flight day into
a festive occasion and make it even more special for everyone involved. “What the communities do for us and for the Dream Flight experience is they take it to a whole new level,” Fisher says. Although the organization works primarily
through senior living communities, individual veterans are welcome to apply. They will be connected to a local senior living community to take part in the day’s festivities.
Dream Flights hopes to reach as many surviving World War II veterans as possible to thank them for their service in this unique way.
40 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MAY/JUNE 2021
Memories and hope Each flight takes one veteran into the air for 15 to 20 minutes, with the entire ex- perience spanning 30 to 45 minutes per person. The plane ride inspires veterans to tell their personal stories of wartime service, often for the first time. Their stories will be videotaped and posted on social media, so they can be shared with others. Participants later receive an 8x10 flight certificate that features a photo of them in the cockpit. From the group and community stories
of past adventures, it’s no exaggeration to say that taking a Dream Flight can be life-changing by giving people a lift and the hope that there are more adventures ahead. One flyer, for instance, had difficulty speaking and needed a walker to get to the airplane. Fisher flew him over a local lake named after the man’s family. He could see the man’s facial expressions change as he flew along the shoreline. “We came back, and we landed, and he
got out and started talking in complete sen- tences and telling his daughter what he saw. It was unbelievable,” Fisher says.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
