November 30, 2020

CABA and the Colorado Department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) once again partnered up to recruit pilots and aircraft to deliver over 8,000 pounds of food and toys to Colorado veterans and their families.

The 9th Annual VFW Holiday Airlift was conducted earlier than in previous years due to weather considerations. The timing was chosen for the weekend following Veterans Day (November 11) to coincide with those festivities and to ensure the delivery of cargo in plenty of time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Despite our attempt to minimize the impact of weather by moving the date up, we unfortunately did have high winds aloft on November 15 that prevented many of the smaller aircraft from flying. We were, however, able to deliver to all of the western slope destinations: Grand Junction, Montrose, Cortez, and Durango. 

Alamosa was delivered the following day, and then over the course of the week, cargo was flown to Pueblo, Las Animas, Burlington, Sterling, Fort Morgan, Greeley, Fort Collins, Longmont, and Erie airports.

Twenty-six VFW posts were served by the cargo flights, and we'll post photos and the number of individuals served when the VFW makes that determination.