Ellington Field employees and the Houston Airport System’s (HAS) Combined Municipal Campaign handed over a check worth $3,818 to the local Helping a Hero nonprofit organization, this month.

The donation was in honor of the recently-celebrated and first-ever “Ellington Field Salutes our Veterans” community event.

In just six weeks time, Ellington employees and local community businesses banded together to put on the event by volunteering and donating their time and services. From small donations of presidential M&Ms, boxes of matches from Air Force One, to gift baskets and a rock wall, local organizations and community members gave what they could to support the event.

Helping a Hero was founded three years ago to help severely wounded soldiers and their families with support for an array of needs they may face. There are only seven board members who volunteer their time and make up the organization.

After serving 26 years in the military and spending two years in Vietnam, Ellington Field’s airport manager Brian Rinehart knows plenty of people who could benefit from the services provided by the Helping a Hero organization.

“We feel very strong about Helping a Hero,” says Rinehart. “It’s a wonderful thing when an organization is out there for our soldiers to help them live a more productive life. We’re happy to help in any way we can.”

Ellington Field was the ideal location for the event, given its 90-plus year military history in Houston and the nation. The money donated to the organization will go to build homes for a select group of severely injured soldiers that have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and who are no longer enrolled in the military.

“The goal is to reintegrate these soldiers back into society. They have paid for our freedom with their injuries and we owe them a lot,” says retired Lt. Col. Michael Dennard, chairman of Helping a Hero. “Most of our candidates are injured for life and will never be one hundred percent. Through our efforts, we try to make their lives as comfortable and as normal as possible, and to try to bring them back into society as much as possible.”