This Memorial Day, a Marine Corps Veteran is on a new mission to honor combat veterans with a special, lasting tribute, and thank you for their service and sacrifice. Danny Kaifetz is not only a retired veteran, but also one of the best at his craft, handcrafting Northern Red Oak into beautiful wooden Adirondack Flagpoles. Danny has taken pride in donating, at least one of his flagpoles, every year, to a deserving combat veteran, that he would build in his shop in Keeseville, where over the past two decades he handcrafted hundreds of wooden flagpoles that he has delivered all across the country. When Danny retired last December, he moved to his camp in Owls Head, New York, renovated an old garage into a woodworking shop, and has gone to work crafting handmade flagpoles in a new way. He turned his business into a nonprofit, called the American Heroes Flagpole Foundation, and now the new mission is to make 20 flagpoles each year for the next 5 years and donate them to combat wounded, combat disabled, or combat decorated veterans. Kaifetz says he’ll turn to his hundreds of former customers, for donations to cover the cost of the new flagpoles. And donors who cover the full 5-thousand-dollar cost of a flagpole, get to choose which veteran will receive it.
Kaifetz says they hope to start giving away the flagpoles within the next few months. He’s inviting a Brigadier General to come to the Plattsburgh Veterans Park, on the U-S Oval, to present the first flagpoles, with full military honors, to as many as 3 local veterans.
You can go to Danny’s American Heroes Flagpoles Foundation website to learn more, sponsor, or nominate a veteran: www.americanheroesflagpoles.com
Watch other stories we’ve done on Danny Kaifetz’s Adirondack Flagpole Shop, and how he helped organize some of the very first Honor Flights here in the North Country in 2013, and how his volunteer work helped alert thousands of Vietnam Veterans that they may have been infected with Hepatitis C, by the injection device the military used to inoculate new recruits. You’ll find all of those stories on our website and YouTube channel.
November 15, 2019 features Danny’s Adirondack Flagpoles and his work to alert veterans to Hep C threat: https://www.pbs.org/video/november-15-2019-upoawj/
October 18, 2013 feature on North Country Honor Flight https://www.pbs.org/video/mountain-lake-journal-october-18-2013/
October 28, 2016 story on Danny’s efforts to raise awareness about the increased number of confirmed cases of Hepatitis C among Vietnam-era Veterans: https://www.pbs.org/video/mountain-lake-journal-october-28th-2016/