George Willis was impressed with the crowd and the new way to help the Dallas Jones Roanoke Valley Veterans Center raise funds.

The Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport was the location for the first fly in to benefit the growing veterans center, which is located in Becker Village Mall.

The center needs help because it continues to grow, said Willis. “We’re getting more and more exhibits in. We’re getting more and more uniforms, not only from the Roanoke Valley but from different states.”

New photos of veterans come in three or four times a day and visitors from as far as Alaska and New York as well as overseas come to visit. “We’re running out of space,” Willis said.

The center will use funds raised from the fly in to get a new PA system and a teleprompter which will tell veterans’ stories for visitors.

New events are planned at the center, including the center joining in the annual fireworks celebration at Lake Gaston on July 3 and a July 4 event at the center which will honor Jones and Pete Luter, who died in March when his parachute failed to open properly while skydiving in Florida. That event will be at 2 p.m.

Today’s fly in was a way to honor all veterans and began with Don Carrington, vice president of the John Locke Foundation and associate publisher of the Carolina Journal, parachuting to the ground to have the flag delivered to Jones by a Navy sailor.

The flag was then attached to the ladder of a Weldon fire truck and the audience stood at attention as the group Captured Hearts sang the national anthem. The Kipp Pride High band played patriotic numbers and visitors got to see vintage trainers, radio controlled planes and Vietnam era helicopters.

Ellen Heaton, owner of Becker Village Mall, said planning for the event was done by David L. Johnson, a retired Air Force general. “The goal of the fundraiser is to make that (the veterans center) self-sustaining ... It’s a regional treasure.”