Thanks for helping bring our father home

To the editor:

After hearing the news of our father’s passing while he was vacationing in the Philippines, my family and I were consumed with shock, despair and the overwhelming question of how to bring him home?

We contacted the U.S. Embassy to verify that it was indeed our father, Charles Jones, and to see what we had to do to get him back on U.S. soil. When we received the letter verifying his remains and stating the breakdown of costs to get him home, we realized we needed some serious help. Who has $7,500 sitting around? Certainly not us, and that was just the amount of money needed to get him back home.

Our first thought was to contact the National Guard since he retired from active duty in 2002. We contacted every office we could think of or anyone else we could think of and weren’t able to receive aid in transporting him back to the U.S. But once he is home they could help with the funeral services and arrangements. We decided that the only way we could get him home was to raise the money. None of us had ever held a fund-raiser before, but we were going to learn how — and fast!

I started working on contacting our local VFW and American Legion posts. VFW Post 9365 allowed me to use its facility for a spaghetti feed and silent auction. Don Marquart; manager at North Bowl, offered to hold a fund-raiser at the bowling alley where people could bowl, sing karaoke, have drinks and celebrate our father’s life. Thankfully, Don and the employees at North Bowl helped Cory set it up because both of our fund-raisers ended up being on the same night and I had already enlisted our older brother, Charles, to help at the VFW.

The spaghetti feed and silent auction at the VFW had a great turnout and the auction items donated helped tremendously! Between the two fund-raisers and the monetary donations made by businesses, friends, family and the community we were able to wire the money to the U.S. Embassy on March 9.

My family and I would like to thank VFW Post 9365, American Legion Post 35, Ahtna Inc, Chitina Native Corp., Southcentral Foundation, North Bowl, Sherry’s Hair Salon, Home Optics, The Tub House, Hatcher Pass Polaris, The New Gun Traders, Star Dust Designz, Mudslingers Pottery, Wilsons Wasilla Video, Splatterhouse, Troy’s Marine Services, Alaska Hot Rocks Massage, The Denali Destroyer Dolls, Regis Salons, Lube Express, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, friends, family and the community for your help.

Because of you and your support we were able to raise the funds to bring our father home to his final resting place.

April Dwyer and Family

Wasilla