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Faith and
Hope Neault were born February 5, three
and a half months early, to Texas DPS
Trooper Jamie Neault and his wife,
Catrina. Faith did not survive, and Hope
weighed one pound at birth. Now after
several surgeries, including open heart
surgery, stomach surgery, and several
blood transfusions, Baby Hope Neault is
gaining weight (now weighing in at 5 lbs
12 oz.) at Texas Children’s Hospital,
but meanwhile, her parents have endured
hardship while caring for their toddler,
Cassidy, and making daily trips to the
hospital to be with Hope. The family has
insurance, but out of pocket expenses
are expected to be around $12,000.
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BBQ & Airplanes - a good mix |
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The communities in Liberty
County rallied round the idea of
a fly-in benefit for the family.
Liberty County Sheriff Greg
Arthur and Liberty Fire Chief
Fred Collins were the first to
jump at the chance to be
involved, offering assistance
with cooking barbeque, and
planning the event. KSHN Radio
station owner Bill Buchanan
wholly supported the event and
news director, Tiffany York,
contributed many long hours to
the success of the fly-in.
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A
group of local pilots had been
talking about hosting a fly-in.
When the news came out about the
Neault family’s situation, an
idea came to TXAA member Linda
Street-Ely: Why not hold our
fly-in to benefit someone in
need? It didn’t take long for
the community to jump at the
chance to help. The date,
originally set for May 10, was
moved when Linda received a call
from a citizen who was involved
in holding another benefit the
same day, for a local citizen,
Mr. Ainsworth. Joe Harrison
requested on behalf of the VFW
and the Ainsworth family that
the fly-in benefit be moved to
another date so that neither
benefit would suffer. In return,
he offered to donate three cases
of whole chickens and lots of
paper goods. The event was
re-scheduled and Mr. Harrison
not only came through with his
promise, but he was accompanied
by Mrs. Ainsworth, as she wanted
to support the Neault family.
Cooking the chicken were teams
from the San Jacinto High
Rollers, Liberty Fire
Department, Kenefick Smokers,
and the Devers Fire Department,
using a large pit borrowed from
Hardin Fire Department.
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Shade where you can find it |
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Prosperity Bank, First Liberty
National Bank, Liberty-Dayton GM
Auto World, B.J. Ford, Liberty
Dayton Chrysler, KSHN Radio 99.9
FM, Oilfield Welding &
Fabrication, and Clawson’s Copy
Shop were among the first to
step up as sponsors, and Ken
Wittekiend, Master Certified
Flight Instructor and owner of
ProMark Aviation from Burnet,
Texas, was the first to offer an
item for auction: two hours of
tail wheel training in his Piper
Super Cub. |
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Many
donors and sponsors joined the ranks,
and calls were coming in to KSHN radio
with more offers of donations, and soon
the list of “Thank-you’s” took up
several poster boards along the fence.
Sheriff Arthur and his assistant, Vita
O’Reilly, were on hand long into Friday
night helping to set up for the fly-in
and spent all day Saturday, tending to
such details as running back to the
store for more food, and emptying trash
barrels.
Boy Scouts
from the Liberty-Dayton area stood for
several hours serving chicken, sausage,
beans, potato salad, and fixin’s. All
food was donated, from Brookshire
Brothers, Thrif-Tee Foods, Wal-Mart, and
two individuals who insisted on
purchasing 1,000 pounds of meat. Drinks,
paper goods, cooking supplies and other
extras were furnished at no charge by
other businesses and individuals,
including Youngblood’s Wholesale, Arlan
Foster, and Joe Harrison.
Auctioneer Glenda Shannon donated her
time for a live auction and when the
initial count was turned in,
approximately $13,000 was raised from
selling lunch plates and auction items.
Donations continue to come in from
people who were out of town and unable
to make the event. Helen Green,
representing B.J. Vacuum Service had the
top bid on an AKC-registered Labrador
pup, donated by Brandy Miller, and
Liberty County native Jed Keck sent in
the high bid all the way from Seattle,
to win the one hour aerobatic
instruction donated by Harvey & Rihn
Aviation of La Porte. Mr. Keck grew up
in the area and was introduced to
aviation at the age of twelve with a
ride in an airplane at the Liberty
Municipal Airport. Mr. Keck’s family did
not have access to a lot of funds so his
aviation career began modestly as he
worked as a mechanic. After earning his
A&P, he went on to earn commercial fixed
wing and helicopter certificates and now
flies for Microsoft co-founder, Paul
Allen. Mr. Keck mailed in his donation
with instructions that the aerobatic
ride be donated to a youngster who wants
to learn to fly, but does not have the
means.
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Liberty’s own Quilt Queen,
Melissa Griffin, donated quilt
squares for people to sign and
will sew them all together for a
memory quilt for baby Hope, kind
of a larger-than-life
well-wishes card.
Flown in were a fully restored
1947 Cessna 140 (tail dragger),
a mint condition 50 year old
1958 Cessna 172, Two WW II
Primary Trainer aircraft the
PT-13 Stearman and a Fairchild
PT-19 Cornell, a Bellanca Super
Decathlon, Cessna 120, 1929
Pietenpol Air Camper, North
American Navion, Kitfox, Avid
Flyer, Steens Skybolt, a Life
Flight helicopter, Piper
Tomahawk, Beech Musketeer, a few
Mooneys, Beech Bonanza, Bellanca
Super Viking and several Vans RV
kit-built aircraft which
included Steve Johnson’s RV-6 as
the first aircraft to arrive.
Liberty-Dayton Chrysler donated
the use of a shuttle van and
driver to get pilots from
tie-downs on the west side to
the event on the east side. Golf
cars were donated by Liberty
Golf Cars to shuttle people who
parked a long way down the
access road. |
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1947 Cessna 140
Flying Museum Piece |
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Boeing PT-17 Stearman & Crew |
Steve
Johnson conducted an organizational
meeting of the brand new Experimental
Aircraft Association (EAA) Chapter,
#1473, at Liberty prior to donning a
bright orange vest and spending the day
out in the sun directing aircraft to
parking along with fellow EAA members
Charlie Grabien, Chet Tims, Kaleb Brown,
Linda Street-Ely and Mike Ely.
Airline pilot, Aileen Watkins and her
friend, Vicki Croston, fellow
Ninety-Nines, along with Watkins’ infant
daughter flew the last aircraft to
depart Liberty. They flew Ms. Croston’s
Piper Warrior based out of Conroe Texas.
After reading about the Neault family on
the event’s web page (http://www.libertyairport.org/hopeflies),
Captain Watkins was moved to tears,
holding her own newborn daughter,
saying, “How could I not come and
support this!”
KSHN’s Bill Buchanan ran several radio
spots promoting the event and broadcast
live from the airport. Monday, after the
event, the radio station ran a feature
story on the results, calling it
“phenomenal” and “great for the
community.” An estimated turn-out of
80-100 airplanes and many local citizens
made the event a success. Linda
Street-Ely remarked, “Not bad for a 55
year old long neglected airport that
just celebrated getting a port-a-potty
last month!” Special thanks also went to
Elliott’s Septic for bringing an
additional twelve port-a-cans for the
event.
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Donations can still
be made
to help the Neault
family:
Hope Flies!
Prosperity Bank
Attn: Debbie Skarpa
520 Main Street
Liberty, TX 77575
(936) 336-5731 |
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PT-19 Collier |
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