Honor Flight Chicago volunteers are distinguished by the color of their shirt. The most common color of volunteer shirt is orange, most often seen in the mornings and evenings of flight day at Midway Airport. It takes hundreds of volunteers to get the flight off the ground and to Welcome Home our heroes.
Before flight day, each trip takes more than 2,000 hours to plan, prepare, and execute, and the majority of that work is accomplished by volunteers looking to show their gratitude to our most-senior veterans. HFC has a modest-sized staff, so we rely heavily on the contribution of our volunteers, and they never cease to amaze. We take pride when we hear people say they have never seen an organization with the type of devoted volunteers that we have. As an Honor Flight Chicago volunteer, you’ll work with a dedicated team to provide the best possible experience for our veterans.
Please note, volunteers must be 18-years-old to become an official Honor Flight Chicago volunteer. Those under 18 years of age are encouraged to apply to our C.L.I.M.B. program as part of our Operation Education initiative using this application.
Volunteers help with:
- Pre-flight Operations/Midway Support Team
- Our largest volunteer group arrives early in the morning on flight day at Midway Airport. This team assists in checking the veterans in, organizing their pre-flight activities and ensuring everything is organized and ready for the flight. A smaller, experienced team executes our Welcome Home celebration at night.
- Fundraising, Special Events and Special Projects
- Our Chicago Law Enforcement Hockey Classic pitting the Chicago Police Department against the Chicago FBI is annually our biggest fundraiser. It takes a massive team of volunteers to pull together all aspects of a fun family event each spring.
- We host a number of other fundraising activities during the course of the year, typically including a late-fall event at Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park, IL.
- Logistics/Office Support
- We ask our dedicated support staff to come into the office at least twice per month to assist with anything from processing veteran applications and assisting with flight planning to data entry and clerical work. Our office staff is invaluable to keeping Honor Flight Chicago up and running on a day-to-day basis.
- Operation Locate A Hero
- This incredible team spreads the word about Honor Flight Chicago to the veteran communities around the Chicagoland area. OLAH team members set up tables at community events and visit local senior centers, veteran’s organizations and more to sign up WWII, Korean War era and Vietnam War era veterans for the day of honor.
- Mission Never Forget
- This team engages with veterans in the communities in which they live. Borne of the pandemic, Mission Never Forget volunteers participate in events such as drive-by car parades and letter writing campaigns to honor veterans — most often HFC alumni — on milestone birthdays and celebrations, or during times of illness and hardship.
- Operation Education
- This team focuses on building our relationships with area schools. By helping connect schools to our veterans, setting up mail call programs and working on educational programming, we seek to teach the next generation about the Greatest Generation and those who came before. NOTE: Applications who are under 18 years of age who wish to become part of the Operation C.L.I.M.B. initiative within Operation Education must use this separate application.
- Veteran Interviews
- Each flight, we tell the stories of several of our senior war heroes prior to their day of honor. Veteran interviewers must be strong communicators who are good at connecting with the veterans and eliciting their stories. Excellent writing and storytelling ability also is a must.