Colorado Marine veteran plans to skydive at age 75 to raise money for memorial
AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — A fearless Aurora veteran plans to jump from an airplane at age 75 to pay tribute to local Marines and help raise money for a Colorado veterans memorial.
And what is Paula Sarlls doing to prepare for the jump?
“I pray a lot,” she joked.
It will not be the first jump for Sarlls. She also went skydiving 12 years ago.
“Anybody can do it. It’s not hard. You just gotta make that first little inch out of the plane,” she told FOX31.
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Sarlls is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, having served from 1967 to 1971. And she wants to honor a group of other Colorado Marine Corps veterans who mean the world to her, like Iwo Jima survivors Jim Blane and Don Whipple.
“Don Whipple is the veteran who inspired me to skydive. And he did it when he was 90, and I thought, well, now I can do it when I’m 90. But I don’t want to wait that long,” Sarlls joked.
She isn’t jumping just for fun. She’s doing it as a fundraiser for a veterans memorial in Golden. Sarlls is President of the USMC Memorial Foundation, and they’re in the middle of a costly renovation and expansion project.
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Visitors to the memorial at Colfax Avenue and U.S. 6 will notice that there are crumbling walls and cracks in the concrete.
“And we just thought this would be a great way to maybe raise some funds and help us maybe maintain the memorial, and you know, raise some more money for the remodel project,” Sarlls said.
The plan to revamp the memorial is ambitious. When the project is finished, they’re planning for an Honor Plaza, a big new entry arch crowned with the Marine Corps emblem, a walk of valor and a memorial wall. They intend for it to be a gathering place to honor and remember the service and sacrifice of Coloradans who donned the uniform.
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And if it takes jumping out of an airplane to jumpstart donations, Sarlls is more than willing — especially if it works out like it did the first time she went skydiving.
“They just made it so easy and so nice, it was spectacular,” she said.
The jump is scheduled for Saturday morning, March 16, at Mile-Hi Skydiving Center in Longmont. Anyone interested in donating to the USMC Memorial Foundation can visit their website.
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