CARSON CITY, Nev.
Sport Clips Haircuts will serve as the primary sponsor of the 2022 Dream Flights Tour, according to Darryl Fisher, founder of Carson City-based Dream Flights, a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring veterans and seniors living in long-term care and retirement communities with free Dream Flights in restored Boeing Stearman biplanes. Sport Clips has served as Dream Flights’ primary sponsor since 2014.
The 2022 Dream Flights Tour begins on April 2, 2022, at Ellington Airport in Houston, where Dream Flights pilot and retired US Air Force fighter pilot Jeff Klosky will fly four residents from Morada Friendswood, a Discovery Senior Living community. During the next 10 months, Dream Flights plans to honor nearly 1,000 seniors and veterans nationwide. Volunteering at nearly every Dream Flight event are Sport Clips team members and franchisees.
“Sport Clips has been a supporter of our nation’s veterans for decades and we love the unique opportunity Dream Flights provides by giving flights to senior veterans,” said Edward Logan, Sport Clips president and CEO. “What’s even better is this partnership gives our stylists and franchisees the opportunity to get out of the four walls of our stores to volunteer at flights around the country and interact with these incredible veterans. We are proud and privileged to be the primary sponsor for the 2022 tour.”
Since the launch of Dream Flights in 2011, the organization has provided free flights for more than 5,000 veterans and seniors living in long-term care communities. Last year in 2021, Dream Flights completed a 61-day, 49-state mission, called Operation September Freedom to honor 891 members of the ‘greatest generation’ for their service and sacrifice. According to Fisher, this historic tour was our nation’s last opportunity to actively recognize and honor the men and women whose sacrifice led to the Sept. 2, 1945 signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, which effectively ended WWII.
“Dream Flights is grateful to Sport Clips for continuing its longtime tradition of supporting our mission of giving back to those who gave,” said Fisher. “We’re proud to align with an organization already dedicated to the efforts of honoring veterans and their families. That Sport Clips hair stylists enthusiastically volunteer at our events makes the Dream Flight experience that much more magical for our senior veterans and their families.”
Dream Flights is a nonprofit dedicated to honoring the service, sacrifice and stories of America's senior veterans by providing them with a life-changing experience: an open-air flight in the cockpit of one of Dream Flights’ fleet of fully restored WWII-era Stearman biplanes. From its founding in 2011 to today, the organization has honored more than 5,000 veterans and seniors with free Dream Flights. Each is made possible through the generous donations of corporate sponsors including Sport Clips, Veterans United Home Loans, American Airlines, Discovery Senior Living, American Healthcare Association/National Center for Assisted Living, Argentum, and individuals and businesses from across the country. The flights are piloted by professional, volunteer pilots, many of whom are retired military aviators, and all of whom support Dream Flights’ mission of “Giving Back To Those Who Gave.” Follow @DreamFlightsOrg on social media and visit www.dreamflights.org.