U.P. Honor Flight representative Scott Lewellyn, standing at left, was the program speaker for the Dickinson Area Golden K meeting Monday. Seated, from left, are Walter “Whitey” Jensen, Bob Bowman, Dennis “Sam” Chartier and Albert Calcari; standing are Scott Lewellyn, Gilbert Engel, Dan Pedo, Lee Lindstrom, Doug Machus, Gary Proudfit, Duane Bernard, John Aune, Donald Pedo, Paul Ward, Jon Corson and Jim Verrette. These Golden K members are all veterans, representing the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Three of these veterans also have been on the U.P. Honor Flight.

By SHARON SCHOLKE

For The Daily News

IRON MOUNTAIN — Under the direction of Al Calcari and Alyce Derwinski on the piano, the Golden K meeting began with a number of familiar songs — making a beautiful morning even better.

Don Pedo, chairman for the month, opened the business meeting by introducing Scott Lewellyn, speaker for the day.

Birthdays and anniversaries for May were honored with song and the winner of the 50-50 drawing was Myrna Magni, who is a new member of Golden K.

Gil Engel, chairman for the day, spoke about the U.P. Honor Flight and turned the program over to Lewellyn, the organization representative.

He started by telling his family’s history of military service and some anecdotes of happenings on previous flights. He asked that the group have a moment of silence for Dick Walsh, a Golden K member who passed away recently and who was eligible for the flight, but health issues made it impossible, so they conducted a special ceremony of a simulated flight at Evergreen Assisted Living.

Songs were played for the various services and the veterans stood when their service was honored, which led into the history of the Honor Flights.

The national organization started in 2005 and the U.P. Flights began in 2011. The next U.P. mission will be on May 22 with 75 to 85 veterans and their guardians, medical personnel and Honor Flight representatives for a total of about 165 on the flight. All costs for the veterans are paid by the U.P. Honor Flight organization. Guardians must accompany each veteran and pay their own way.

The organization is completely funded by personal and business donations. Information may be obtained by going online to uphonorflight.org or contacting Lewellyn at 906-396-0131.

To help fund Honor Flights, a fundraising event has been set starting at noon June 15 at Bob’s Country Bar in Niagara, Wis. There will be entertainment, food, beverages, drawings and prizes.

Lewellyn closed with a reminder, “The U.P. Honor Flight motto is, ‘It’s never too late to say thank you.'” He then read a poem by Angela Goodwin that ended by saying, “If you are a soldier, I am saying this to you, thank God for every soldier, thank God for what you do.”

The Golden Throats will sing at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Evergreen Senior Living in Kingsford.

The program for the Monday meeting will be a representative from Dickinson Iron Community Services Agency.