Making a Journey of a Lifetime Possible

Los Banos Future Farmers of America raises $20,000 to help send veterans to Washington, DC

Los Banos FFA leaders and other current and former citizens from the City prior to the start of the April 14 Fresno State/Air Force Baseball Game.   Photo provided by Los Banos FFA

This is about two Central Valley organizations doing a lot of good in our community.  

Central Valley Honor Flight has made it possible for dozens of area veterans to see the memorials in Washington, DC that recognize their service to our country.  

By arranging these cross country trips, Honor Flight mobilizes hundreds of volunteers to send the veterans off at the beginning of their special journey, and to welcome them back upon their return.

The Los Banos Chapter of Future Farmers of America, like many FFA organizations, nurture the passion young people have for agriculture and leadership.  

We see them in their blue jackets with gold embroidery at the Merced County Springtime Fair and at other events.

In the fall of 2016, chapter members and their adult leadership were in Washington for a conference.  At the same time, Central Valley Honor Flight was there taking veterans to various military venues.  

Chapter leaders changed their schedule so they could meet up with the veterans.  The Chapter paid for a wreath that was laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

According to Paul Loeffler who works with Central Valley Honor Flight and is the radio host of Hometown Heroes, a program where many veterans share their stories,

“The kids were really moved by meeting our vets.”

That DC connection between the teens from the Central Valley and the veterans would change a lot of hearts, and motivate many volunteers to raise money for future Honor Flights.

“Watching those kids meet up with the veterans really moved us,” FFA adult leader Jim Orr told me.   

After hearing a volunteer talk about how Honor Flight would continue providing trips as long as it could afford to, Jim and others came to a realization.  

 “Getting back on the bus that day, we thought about what that volunteer said.  That’s when we decided we had to do something.”  

Members of the Los Banos FFA, area veterans, & Central Valley Honor Flight representatives at the Fresno State/Air Force baseball game where the $20,000 donation was presented.  Photo provided by Los Banos FFA

Working with the area Veterans of Foreign Wars post, the local American Legion post, and other community volunteers, the FFA helped sell eighteen-hundred tickets at ten dollars apiece for a drive-through pasta dinner held in February.  

With one-hundred percent of the dinner expenses donated by local businesses and community members, coupled with some cash donations, the dinner pulled the community together to raise twenty-thousand dollars for Central Valley Honor Flight.  

Jim says it was great to see everyone pulling together.  

“Veterans, high school ag kids, teachers, and parents were all working in one direction.”

The money will be used to help pay for the next mission to take a jet full of area veterans and their volunteer “buddies” to see the World War II, Korean, and Vietnam War memorials.  When time permits, other venues fill out their time in DC.  

The veterans are thanked for their service.  For many, this is the only period in their lives that anyone took the time to show appreciation for the sacrifices made to defend our nation.

Prior to the start of the Fresno State/Air Force baseball game, players from both teams welcomed the veterans and FFA members.  Photo provided by Los Banos FFA

Raising twenty-thousand dollars was a monumental task for the Los Banos FFA chapter.  

But like the many challenges in farming, group members broke down the over-arching goal to manageable smaller tasks.  

Little by little, this volunteer effort did the job and knocked the goal out of the park.

Honor Flight continues to draw more attention to the sense of gratitude many are trying to install when it comes to our military.  

Recently, an episode of the popular CBS television series NCIS focused on an Honor Flight participant.  The episode ended with information on how a viewer can support the national organization.

Central Valley Honor Flight focuses on regional veterans.  The April 2017 trip features six Merced County veterans.  Three are from Merced, two are from Livingston, and one is from Los Banos.   

$20,000.00  is a lot of money.

But it takes a lot of money to fly these veterans across the nation.  

A medical professional accompanies the group.  Hotels, ground transportation, and meals all add up.  The cost is about two-thousand dollars per person.  

While each veteran is accompanied by a “buddy” who devotes his or her time exclusively on a particular veteran, the buddy is expected to raise enough money to cover his or her own trip costs.

The Los Banos chapter of Future Farmers of America takes their pride for these veterans seriously.  Plans are already underway for the 2018 dinner.  

These young men and women have a real appreciation for farming.  But they also have a true desire to help others.

And that’s exactly what they did by helping Central Valley Honor Flight.

Hometown Heroes is a weekly radio show honoring veterans.  

You can search their interview website at www.HometownHeroesRadio.com

For more information on Central Valley Honor Flight, visit http://cvhonorflight.org/

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.  

His book Finding Bill shares his search to better understand the military service of his uncle who served in Vietnam.

My Love of this Game

It’s now abundantly clear who in their right mind would take up golf.  

Picture from the Newvine Personal Collection

The first time I swung a golf club on a course I missed the ball, tore up the grass, and wondered why anyone would want to play this game.

The second time on a golf course was not much better.  I hit the ball, but it went out-of-bounds.  I was convinced this game was not for me.

Now, nearly forty years later, I can’t wait to get on a tee box and start another round.  How I got from “why” to “can’t wait” is the story of my life in golf.

In the 1980s, a friend suggested we try to learn the game together.  For a few years, we’d try to get out once every other month for nine holes.  I refer to that time as the “score doesn’t matter era.”

By the 1990s, I began a new career as a chamber of commerce executive.  Part of what a chamber of commerce person did back in those days played in charity tournaments.  Most of these tournaments were played as scrambles, meaning only the best shot among the four team members was used.  

This speeded up the game, and with over one-hundred golfers on the course for a charity tournament, the game had to move fast.  

Suddenly, it didn’t matter how poorly I played as our team could win based on the best shots among the members.  

Playing scrambles did give me a chance to observe better golfers.  

The score card from my one and only round at Oak Hill Country Club. Picture from the Newvine Personal Collection

One Saturday evening, a friend called to invite me to join his foursome on Monday morning at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.  Oak Hill was one of the finest golf courses in the United States.  

I quickly accepted the invitation.  It was a memorable round for two reasons.  The first reason was made clear as soon as our group finished the first hole and the caddy said, “Gentlemen, from this point forward, we will play in the scramble format.”  The caddy’s job was to help keep the golfers moving.

The second reason why this round was memorable was our host.  An elderly man, he took only one swing of a driver and putt just one hole.  The rest of the time he remained on his cart and enjoyed watching his much younger friends play.  

At the end of the round, he bought us lunch in the clubhouse and took us to the pro shop where we were instructed to pick out a golf cap to remember the day.    

Years later when I about to leave the area to come to California, I called my friend and invited him out to lunch on me.  He declined, offering instead to treat my wife and me for lunch one final time at Oak Hill.

I’m not sure whether it was that special place or some other time, but I would like to think that was the day I began to love the game of golf.

Like a lot of weekend duffers, I would use the occasion of being on the golf course to smoke a cigar.  In the year 2000, my family learned of my mother’s cancer diagnosis.  

There wasn’t much I could do to help my mom as she endured chemotherapy that summer, but I could change my health habits.  

I stopped smoking cigars on the golf course and any other place right then and there.  My mom lost her battle with the disease, but my pledge to myself to stop smoking even those few times I was on a golf course has made me proud.

I started watching golf on television in 2004.  I had already moved to California but was going back to upstate New York occasionally where my wife was busy selling our home.  It was Easter weekend, and I didn’t want to go anywhere.  

After church and our Easter dinner, my family and I sat in our living room and watched Phil Mickelson win the green jacket at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia.  Most Sundays in golf season, you’ll find me watching that week’s big tournament.  You can probably guess who my favorite pro golfer is.

 Steve and his friend and golf buddy, the late Jim North.  Picture from the Newvine Personal Collection

In more recent years, there was the time when I played a round with my friend Jim.  

We played as Rancho Del Rey in Atwater, California.  I was down to the last golf ball in my bag, a monogrammed bill making my fiftieth birthday.  

I hesitated to tee up that ball, but I had no choice.  I started to tell Jim about the ball, and how an East coast friend had a dozen monogrammed for my birthday.  Jim was patient, but quiet as I rambled on about how special this ball was.  

Picture from the Newvine Personal Collection

I then teed up the ball, made my swing, and saw the ball plop into the water hazard.  Without missing a beat, Jim looked at me and said, “Well, happy birthday I guess.”

So now you know why I love this game so much.  It has nothing to do with how well or how poorly I play.  It has everything to do with connecting me to friends, special moments, and enduring memories.   

It’s now abundantly clear to me why someone would take up this game.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.  

His book Friend Through the End is a collection of columns and book excerpts about family, friends, and golf buddies.