Blog

This July 15th, 16th, and 17th the Collings Foundation will make their annual stop at Northern Colorado Reginal.

The stop at our airport is traditionally one of their most financially successful stops.

Over the years I have watched it grow. I remember the days when Rob would hand me a radio and tell me what time I should start monitoring it so he could let me know how far away the planes were. I would let the crowd know when to expect the War Birds, as he called them, and the mighty rumble announcing their arrival never failed to elicit a response. I knew it wasn’t but, it felt like it was just the two of us working the planes. Then it slowly grew into an event, complete with WWII era music and cars as well as the later addition of the re-enactors. They brought with them military vehicles and set up camps like they would have set them up in WWII. They were a perfect setting for someone interested in not just the planes but the tanks and all.

We boasted the largest gathering of Veterans in Northern Colorado for the breakfast we held on Saturday mornings. We would cap off the evening with a USO type dinner and dance.

This year we made the difficult decision to not have both the breakfast and the dance. At the rate we are losing our WWII veterans there are not enough that are able to attend.

The planes will still be here for both static display and flights. We will, of course, give them all the support we can to make this a success for them.

We are looking towards a full event next year complete with breakfast and dance and re-enactors. We are refocusing who our veteran target audience will be, but we will have something.

Thank you to those who have volunteered to drive carts, I still need you. And a thank you to those who have volunteered your planes.

Without volunteers we could not do this event!!