
2020 HOT RODS FOR HEROES UPDATE - A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
March 18, 2020: Honor Flight Central Florida will reschedule our "Hot Rods for Heroes" fundraiser To all our gracious and generous supporters, As announced here and in our social media on Monday March 16, Honor Flight Central Florida has cancelled our March 21 fundraising event in keeping with current concerns about the spread of Corona Virus. We are saddened to have had to share this news with all, but confident we have made the right decision in the interest of the health and well being of all our sponsors, registrants, vendors, and those planning to attend. With two prior and very successful "Hot Rods for Heroes" events held in the spring of 2018 and 2019, we had truly looked forward to this event, and are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented and sudden cancellation. As recently as last Friday, we had given serious consideration to hold the event as scheduled, and published our decision to "carry on" when options to move forward were more focused on taking recommended and increased precautions, which were put in place to ensure a safe event in the context of information available at that time. And, last Saturday, we held a final planning meeting with great excitement about honoring the commitments made by our sponsors, donors and pre-registrants to a great family event that any patriotic supporter of our Veteran community, and car, truck and motorcycle enthusiast would truly enjoy. However, as the situation evolved, and CDC recommendations became increasingly onerous late Sunday and very early Monday, we made the tough decision we believed to be in order with the maximum amount of notice we could provide to all who planned to participate in, and support the event. We are committed to do our part to help protect our attendees, staff, and members of our Veteran community we know were greatly looking forward supporting the event. We are exploring options to reschedule "Hot Rods for Heroes" at a future date in 2020,and have already reached out to advise all who pre-registered their vehicles, our generous sponsors of each facet of our event, and vendors and others who had committed to make our third annual "Hot Rods for Heroes" a success. I wish to thank all of you for your understanding and support of our decision, and ask that you bear with us as we explore our options, and define the alternate plans under consideration at this time. Watch here and on our Facebook page, for continued updates and news as soon as we can provide it. For all who donated goods and services, all our sponsors, all who spent countless hours organizing this event, and all who had planned to turn out next Saturday to support our mission and our beloved Veterans, we wish the very best for you, your families and loved ones during this challenging time. We hope you'll dedicate the compassion you demonstrated in your commitment to our event, throughout our community, in those ways now more important and needed. Kindest regards, Ed Riordan Chairman of the Board Honor Flight Central Florida