Some Members Of The Stow, MA Planning Board Questioning The Foundation's Mission

The Collings Foundation has submitted plans to the Stow, Massachusetts Planning Board for a proposed new museum building on the Foundation’s grounds. This museum would house the core of Jacques Littlefield’s Military Vehicle Technology Foundation collection of historic tanks, military vehicles and artifacts. According to the plans, there will be 83 major historical items from WWI up to the Gulf War plus many smaller pieces. Once complete, the collection will be open to the public from May 1st to October 31st during the weekends and for scheduled groups.

The museum would educate visitors about world history from WWI to Iraq and honor our Veterans through the display of historical exhibits, military equipment, docent conducted tours, living history events and artifact preservation.

On Wednesday August 6th, the Collings Foundation had the second public Planning Board meeting. Because some people commented at the public review that the Foundation’s programs and museum are not educational, the Stow Planning board is challenging the Foundation's 501c3 educational non-profit status. One of the board members has expressed doubts that our museum, collection, programs and events (both locally and nationally) are educational. This same board member has also proposed that the town has not properly sanctioned the Foundation's Stow events.

Since 1979 the Collings Foundation has been a 501c3 educational foundation based in Stow, Massachusetts with “the charitable, scientific and educational purposes of establishing and operating a museum for the study, preservation and public exhibition of articles of cultured, scientific and historic importance and for the education of the public with respect to such articles.”

The foundation maintains that large part of the its efforts go into the annual national Wings of Freedom tour (a traveling museum) and Vietnam Memorial Flight. The Wings of Freedom tour around the country features the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator and P-51 Mustang. This is the longest-lived and most extensive historical aircraft tour in the world. Like the Vietnam Memorial Flight, the objective is to educate people about this history through truly unforgettable living history experiences. Of course, honoring Veterans and the sacrifices made to preserve freedom is a core part of all of the Foundation's efforts. In 2009 the Air Force Museum recognized the Collings Foundation with its highest honor in the field of aerospace education, the Hoyt Vandenberg Award. Since 1979, the Collings Foundation has organized over 3,000 events.

The Collings Foundation is asking for help from the aviation community. They are asking interested persons to send an email or letter to the Collings Foundation (addressed to the Stow, MA Planning Board) expressing support for the Collings Foundation’s goals and purposes and endorse its educational living history events, including the construction of the proposed new museum facility. Personal stories about how the Collings Foundation has affected you and / or your family particularly through an educational experience are encouraged. Letters will be forwarded to the Planning Board prior to next meeting scheduled on September 10th. In order to effectively summarize the letters and include them in our presentation they request that they be sent by the first week of September. The address is:

Collings Foundation
Attn: Support
PO Box 248
Stow, MA 01775

Or send an email to Hunter Chaney at the Collings Foundation.

Letters and emails are most effective when they are factual, forthright, and respectful.

(Images provided by the Collings Foundation. Top: The architectural rendering of the Collings Foundation’s proposed building for housing their newly acquired military vehicle collection. Bottom: The Foundation’s 1944 vintage Consolidated B-24J Liberator is painted as “Witchcraft”, an 8th AF bomber that flew a record 130 missions over Europe as part of the 467 th BG. The Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress flies as “Nine-O-Nine”, an 8 th Air Force, 91 st BG heavy bomber)

FMI: www.collingsfoundation.org