21 February 2024
BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (KSNW) – Gene and Jim Scheer are veterans who got the opportunity to go on the Kansas Honor Flight. It’s an opportunity they want to share with others.
“It was a good trip,” Gene said. “And I think all veterans ought to go if they get the opportunity. It’s a nice trip.”
“I mean, I’ve never been to Washington D.C. before, and they take you through, show you the World War II Memorial, the Korean Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, you get to see all of the lists, all the names of the people there,” Jim said.
Jim went in 2017.
“I came back in 2017 on my honor flight, and I decided well, I got nothing else to do, I’ll help pick up cans,” Jim said. “That’s where it started, and I got older. Gene’s gonna, he take over now.”
Gene went in 2021.
“After I went, he was doing it, and it started getting more and more,” Gene said. “So, I said, ‘well, I’ll help you.’ So we got started doing it, and as it grew, we started using these totes, so people would come here and just drop them off and dump them into totes.”
Then, they spread it out, putting totes in other locations.
“We have one in Kingman at Fisher Lumber,” Gene said. “We’ve got one in Garden Plaine and at the Senior Center, and we got one at the football fields and the ballpark. And then we’ve got one at Andale at Fisher Lumber, and then we got one in Colwich, and I’ve actually been thinking about trying to get one in Cheney and Goddard, but I haven’t done that yet.”
They say keeping up with all the aluminum keeps them busy.
Gene had been to D.C. before because he was stationed in Virginia, but he says it’s much different than what it was 50 years ago.
“It was just an experience you don’t get very often,” Gene said. “I mean, few, not a whole lot of people have that opportunity, and it’s nice that the veterans do get to go, and that’s one reason we’re trying to raise more money so they can we can send more veterans.”
Last year they collected 13,000 pounds. In two years, they made enough to send seven veterans.
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