Kettle drives and airplane rides have made a difference in Vicksburg.

The Salvation Army of Vicksburg’s annual Kettle Drive raised about $62,000 in 2017, Maj. Steve Welch said, adding the amount was $1,000 more than the $61,000 raised in 2016. “The Kettle Drive is our biggest fundraising program,” he said. “It provides the money to keep the lights on and to have a person available to interview people in need.”

The drive also helps with the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, which helps hundreds of families annually at Christmas.

“We served 326 children and 106 seniors — adult angels,” Welch said. “That’s more than we served last year. We had a lot of people who helped us this year and we had some organizations collect toys, which helped supplement what we had.”

On Thursday, pilot, Mark Holt landed  his Embraer Phenom 100 nicknamed ‘the Millennium Phenom’ for its Star Wars themed paint job at the Vicksburg-Tallulah Airport to bring Afghanistan vet Brian Boone to hunt wild pigs as part of a Warrior Bonfire event.

Holt, said he dedicated his plane to serving veterans after selling his agricultural nutrition company to Arm & Hammer Co. in 2014.

“When we sold my business, the company that bought me out didn’t want to keep the airplane, and because it is the pinnacle of my flying career, I didn’t want to give up the jet, and I didn’t want to be self-serving,” he said. Therefore, after selling the business, Holt repurposed the jet to provide service for Veterans Airlift.

“We dedicated 100 percent of our airplane, airplane costs, my time and my wife’s time for providing lifts for veterans,” Holt said.

Holt has made 30 flights. No. 30 was flying Boone, an amputee and a retired Army staff sergeant who lives in San Antonio, Texas, to the Warrior Bonfire hunting trip and to renew a friendship with bonfire program founder and local resident, Dan Fordice.

More positives this week in Vicksburg:

4 USA Today is currently choosing the best attractions from each of the 50 states and the Vicksburg National Military Park is leading the “Best Mississippi Attraction” in the online voting contest. “We appreciate the recognition,” Bill Justice, the VNMP superintendent, said. “We’ve always thought, and we’re not the only ones, who think that the Vicksburg National Military Park is one of the top attractions. People come from all over the country to learn about the siege of Vicksburg, and so it is good to see someone like USA Today to have us in the running.”

4 After working 44 years at stores on Washington Street, Betty Ann Carr is retiring — for a second time. Carr, who is known as “B.A.,” a nickname given by her husband Gordon, “Motor,” when they were in college, has worked part-time for the last 23 years at Sassafras, a gift shop on Washington Street in the city’s downtown district. “I worked 54 years (in Vicksburg), and 44 of it was on the (Washington) Street,” she said. “I worked nine years with the Village Gallery, 12 years for Versil’s (gift and bridal shop) and 23 for Sassafras. Before that, I worked 10 1/2 years as a teacher. I taught fourth grade at Halls Ferry Elementary.”