BISMARCK – The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation announced it has awarded the Western North Dakota Honor Flight $200,000.

“I was stunned. I never dreamed we would get this size of a grant,” said Dennis Burdowski, Western North Dakota Honor Flight board member. “This grant allows us to add another flight later this year.”

On April 30, 100 western North Dakota veterans will board a plane headed to Washington, D.C., to spend a whirlwind two days visiting national memorials dedicated to those who served and sacrificed for the country, connecting with fellow veterans and receiving appreciation for putting their lives on the line for others.

The largest source of funding for foundation grants has been royalties from North Dakota oil and gas wells, which Tom and Frances Leach gifted to the foundation. Tom Leach was a geologist and has been hailed as the “Father of North Dakota Oil.” He first visited North Dakota in 1928 and in 1950, he convinced Amerada Petroleum to drill in North Dakota, which led to the state’s first successful oil well.

Tom Leach also was a veteran, having served in the Army in 1920 and again in 1943 during World War II.