Teen carpenter raises money for Honor Flights

TROY, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) — High school junior Scott Coondrat is as patriotic as he is talented. “I just like working with my hands. I like putting things together and making it work,” he told NEWS10.

With his passion for the trades and pride for country, Scott has been busy, measuring, cutting and painting rustic American flags. The final product is a wooden masterpiece. His first creation was a Father’s Day gift for his dad, Adam .

The flags that followed were inspired by his great-grandfather, a veteran of the Korean War, who went on an Honor Flight in 2019. “When he came back from the Honor Flight, he just had a whole new view on what his service meant,” explained Coonradt. “I’d love to help more people experience that.”

With his measured approach, on his free time, he made more flags and raffled them off at local county fairs. “I raised $400 to donate,” he said.

The money was all donated to send more veterans on honor flights. “Veterans gave a lot for us. We wouldn’t be here without them,” he said.

Mike McGillycuddy, a construction technology teacher at Robert H. Gibson Technical School said, “When Scott told me about it, I was like ‘that’s great.'”

To nail down his skills, Scott is now enrolled in construction classes through Questar’s BOCES technical program at the high school in Troy.

“Definitely going to keep making more flags,” he added.

Each wooden flag takes about five to six hours in total. His father is a talented blacksmith, who was profiled by NEWS10 in 2021. Both of them will be at a sendoff for an honor flight taking off from Albany on Saturday morning.

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