After nearly a year of supporting Honor Flight Bluegrass as their signature fundraising event, the Sunset Cruisers presented the organization with a check for over $2,800. The presentation was made at Texas Roadhouse Wednesday evening with the support of the Daviess County Sheriff’s Department and Oakley Automotive.
“It is basically a culmination of the year’s events,” said Sunset Cruisers President Joe Anderson. “The weather for the downtown event in July was rainy and nasty — we felt like we could do more. So we held a second event in September at Texas Roadhouse and tried to raise more funds.”
Anderson, a Korean War era Army veteran said, with so many members of the Sunset Cruisers being veterans, the events that serve veterans seem to speak to them. This year, however, the idea of raising money for veterans to travel to Washington, D.C. with Honor Flight Bluegrass held a special meaning to the Cruisers.
“We have a lot of great sponsors they all contributed to the veterans event to make it what it was — everybody gives a little and it accumulates a lot,” Anderson said. “Part of our motivation for the second event is that we lost one of our charter veterans, Hugh Wade.”
Anderson said Wade was a Vietnam era veteran who was an active member of the Sunset Cruisers, the Marine Corps League and helped with Toys for Tots.
“He was just a great guy,” Anderson said. “We wanted to donate in his honor and make it better than it had been. It just seemed like a good fit.”
Judging by this year’s total, they did. Last year was the first year the Cruisers raised funds for Honor Flight and Anderson said they brought in approximately $700. This year they exceeded that amount by $2,100.
The Cruisers intend to continue raising funds for Honor Flight in 2020 with a Cruise-In event scheduled for June 6 in honor of D-Day.
“We will designate one month directed at veterans next summer,” Anderson said. “In honor of Hugh Wade, we also committed to $2,500 over five years for Toys for Tots. Historically at the end of the year, we look at our finances and give to various charities. This year, we elected for Toys for Tots to be the first end of year disbursement in honor of Hugh.”
