Amy's promise

Amy Luft laments that she never got to look her father in the eyes and thank him for his military service.

She’s done more than make up for it since holding his hand when Robert Akright took his final breath on Jan. 31, 2001.

Luft promised him she would lead a more meaningful life. She has come to realize the value of her upbringing.

“I had somebody raise me from the Greatest Generation,” she said.

The Sheboygan Falls native and longtime Grafton resident has become a tireless advocate for veterans, and she was recently elected as president of the Wisconsin American Legion Auxiliary at the state auxiliary’s annual convention.

“It’s a great feeling when you hear your name announced as the next state president,” Luft said.

She knows it means she has to get to work during her one-year term. The state’s American Legion Auxiliary Department started in 1919 with more than 800 units as wives, sisters and mothers cared for veterans of World War I. Now, it’s down to 339 chapters.

“We are struggling as an organization. We need more members. People don’t know what the American Legion Auxiliary is,” Luft said.

Luft might be the person to do it. The energetic fireball bleeds passion for veterans, so much so that she didn’t seek re-election as a Village of Grafton trustee to make more time to devote to the state president position.

The state auxiliary last year assisted nearly 55,000 veterans and military members and gave $1.4 million through donations, poppy sales, service, scholarships and the auxiliary’s youth leadership program, Badger Girls State.

It’s time, Luft said, to do some “humble bragging” about what the auxiliary does.

Luft’s role has her directing auxiliary programs across the state, overseeing the units and visiting Veteran Affairs hospitals.

“The goal is to support the American Legion with anything the Legion needs,” she said.

Each president chooses a special project, and Luft’s is the Honor Flight with the theme “Wings of Honor: Helping Our Heroes Take Flight.”

Her goal is to raise money for the five Honor Flight hubs in Wisconsin, and one in Duluth, Minn., that draws Wisconsin residents.

Luft will make her 60th Honor Flight in October. She served on the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight board of directors for a decade and remains an ambassador.

“We know there are veterans out there who haven’t taken a flight yet,” she said.

Luft has made calls to invite veterans to apply. Some react as if they’d won the lottery, she said.

The flights take veterans in one day to and from Washington, D.C., where they visit several monuments, get cheered on by hundreds of people in emotional arrivals and departures at both airports, and they open mail on the plane from family and friends like soldiers get while on duty.

Some veterans, Luft said, say the day ranks with getting married and the birth of their children.

The first Honor Flights were for World War II veterans. They signed up as many as they could for the first flights, filling three 747s with veterans and their guardians for the day. Veterans sit next to each other on the plane and share stories with each other that their family members haven’t even heard.

Then the waiting list was expanded to Korean War veterans, and lately the focus is on veterans of the Vietnam War. “There is nobody that deserves a welcome home more than those Vietnam veterans,” Luft said.

Doctors came to the Rose-Harms Post to train guardians on how to care for those on the flights with post-traumatic stress disorder.

She remembers one Vietnam veteran who didn’t smile all day during an Honor Flight. Upon returning from the war, he  took off his uniform and threw it out of the  car window on the way home.

“It’s not about the memorials anymore. It’s this healing process,” Luft said.

She honors her father on each trip by keeping a photo of him on the back of her honor Flight lanyard.

Luft’s veterans service journey started while at a fish fry at the Peter Wollner American Legion Post 288 in Cedarburg. Soon after, she was asked  to join Grafton’s Rose-Harms American Legion Post 355 Auxiliary.

She joined in 2007 and became president within a year. One of her first initiatives was a fish boil.

“It was a huge community event,” she said.

She also organized the brick memorial in front of the Post — her father’s name is on a brick — and the honorary banners along the riverwalk in Veterans Memorial Park.

It was at another Cedarburg post fish fry that Luft developed one of the Grafton post’s signature events.

“I’m a wannabe runner. I was running between the Cedarburg and Grafton post. Where do you find two viable American Legion posts within 2.5 miles of each other?” she said.

She turned over a cocktail napkin and declared, “I’m going to do Sweat 4 Vets.”

The event has raised more than $250,000 in nine years, choosing a different American Legion cause in Wisconsin each year.

Luft also works with the Sons of the American Legion and Legion Riders, organizations  she calls “the American Legion family.” The groups combine to be strong advocates for Congress to pass bills supporting veterans.

Luft has held multiple leadership positions in the Legion Auxiliary, and she is now the national chairman for community service.

“We didn’t wear the uniform, so this is our way to serve the veterans in our lives,” she said of the Auxiliary.

She is proud that Ozaukee County has eight American Legion posts and seven auxiliary units.

“That’s kind of a wow factor. You don’t see that throughout the other 71 counties,” she said. “We are so behind our veterans.”

Auxiliary members, she said, can receive more benefits than most are aware of, including discounts on insurance, car rentals and glasses, and money to help rebuild homes after natural disasters.

Her husband Todd helps with many events, and their two daughters were junior members until they turned 18 and became senior members. Luft’s two young grandsons marched in this year’s Memorial Day parade and helped lay a wreath.

Luft spent 22 years in sales and marketing for senior health care and now fits working an assistant store manager at Family Sharing of Ozaukee County into her busy life keeping her promise to her father.

“It is busy,” she said. “It’s a good busy. Helping our veterans is a passion for me. My payment in my heart is worth a lot more than a paycheck.”