Organizers of a recent fundraiser for the Canadian Museum of Flight say they'll be emptying their rain buckets and filling them cash, thanks to a successful High Flyin' Hawaiian Night.
The aloha-themed event drew more than 150 people, and raised in excess of $25,000.
Some of that will be used to fix the roof, says event coordinator Carla Deminchuk.
The weather, she says, cooperated the night of the fundraiser: it was raining. Guests could see just how badly the hangar leaked. Rain buckets and water trays were spread throughout the venue. One doubled as a wishing well.
"The whole affair was rated as one of our best yet, and a sampling of the comments from the floor seemed to concur," flight museum president Gord Wintrup said.
Along with bidding on silent auction items, guests could buy mystery boxes. One attendee presented a box to one of the event's bartenders as a tip.
When she opened it, inside was a $1,400 diamond ring.
The trip for two to Hawaii (including pineapple) went to the Lawsons, a couple from Langley.
Several aircraft at the museum claim a Cloverdale connection. One, the Waco INF, a sport plane built in 1930, was the oldest flying airplane in western Canada until it fell into disrepair about eight years ago. Volunteers hope to get it back in the air this year.
Cloverdale residents may recognize it from the former B.C. Transportation Museum, which closed in 1992.
Another Cloverdale legacy, a Douglas DC-3 known as The Spirit of the Skeena that was moved from Terrace, is now also at the Canadian Museum of Flight in Langley. It was built in 1940, and ended its flying career with Trans Provincial Airlines as a spare parts ship.
The Canadian Flight Museum is run by a non-profit society that has a membership of about 400. There’s a core group of volunteers who help rebuild and maintain the planes.
For more information on the Canadian Museum of Flight, visit www.canadianflight.org.
Follow the Cloverdale Reporter on 
Twitter and 
Facebook. View our print edition online.