BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Doing your chores: Student raises money for Honor Flight veterans
- Grant Souers will be a 6th grader at Centennial Elementary School in the fall of 2025
- He has taken part in the school's Honor Flight fundraiser since 3rd grade, and is the leader in donations
- Grant wants to join the military when he gets old enough, with dreams of becoming a Navy SEAL
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Friday marks the 81st anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944, when Allied troops stormed ashore at Normandy. It's a moment in history that's captured on these tablets at the World War II Memorial in Jastro Park. All the names of our men and women who took part in the war effort are etched onto these tablets, many of whom took part in Honor Flight. I've got the story of a young man who's been raising money to send these veterans to D.C. since the age of nine.
“This house right here, Marines," said Souers. You might say he's a man on a mission. "The way I view it, if 1,000 people donate two dollars, that's 2,000 dollars," said Souers.
The soon-to-be 6th grader at Centennial Elementary has been collecting money as part of his school’s Honor Flight fundraiser since he was a 3rd grader. “Whenever I heard Honor Flight, I donated all the money, not tons, but I thought I could do better than that, so I went over to friends and family and started doing chores for them," said Souers.
Pulling his supplies around his northwest Bakersfield neighborhood, during the two-week event each January, Grant earned 500 doing odd jobs, sometimes getting down and dirty. "I picked up dog poop, and walked a dog... (I hope it wasn't a big dog), No, it wasn't," said Souers with a smile.
And word of his ‘mission’ started to spread. "My top donor gave me 300 dollars one time, that was a huge thing, her husband served, that was the biggest,” said Souers.
Grant told me during a recent walk around his neighborhood that he raised 700 in his 2nd year and 1,000 this year. In his final year at Centennial, he wants to earn 1,500 to send a “Vet on a Jet”, as his school calls it. That’s one veteran to D.C. by himself, and that’s not all. "We’re looking at my 13th birthday, going with my Dad and chaperoning. That would be a dream come true for me," said Souers.
And Grant's family does have a little military background; in fact, his great-grandfather served during the Korean War. He, along with a delegation from Centennial Elementary, will present the school's donation to Honor Flight during the monthly breakfast on Thursday.
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