RALEIGH – There’s a great new opportunity for public-spirited North Carolinians to exercise leadership. And they don’t even have to run for public office to pursue it.

I’m speaking of the impending decommissioning of the USS Kitty Hawk, the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier in the fleet. A group of civic-minded individuals from the Wilmington area recently started a movement to bring the carrier to North Carolina as a museum and tourist attraction, much as the battleship USS North Carolina was brought to rest in Wilmington nearly 50 years ago. The group, the Wilmington Kitty Hawk Concept Team, is scheduled to put the idea before the New Hanover Board of County Commissioners this week for an endorsement.

It would be wonderful for local and state politicians to get behind the notion of saving the Kitty Hawk and using it as a basis for a naval-history park in Wilmington to rival the popular Patriots Point attraction in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. But before anyone starts talking about appropriating taxpayer dollars to make it happen, remember that the campaign for the USS North Carolina was one of the most successful private-fundraising efforts in state history. We are a wealthier and more populous state than we were half a century ago. We can do this again without turning the project into yet another pork-barrel scheme.

The late Hugh Morton – photographer, conservationist, and entrepreneurial owner of the Grandfather Mountain attraction – spearheaded the North Carolina effort. It was innovative, exciting, and wildly successful. It included naming fundraising leaders in each county, recruiting North Carolina celebrities, offering incentives to large- and medium-scale donors, and capturing the imagination of the state’s schoolchildren. While the original goal of $275,000 seemed daunting at the time – that’s roughly $2 million in today’s currency – Morton and his Save Our Ship (SOS) movement ended up exceeding the goal by 20 percent.

Now, there’s no doubt that bringing the Kitty Hawk to Wilmington and setting up a naval-museum complex will be a more complicated and expensive endeavor. But it can be done. Adjusting for inflation, North Carolinians have many times the amount of private wealth that their forebears had in the days of SOS. If a Kitty Hawk campaign were to attract the same proportion of personal income as the SOS campaign did, that would translate to more than $14 million. The Wilmington Kitty Hawk Concept Team estimates that the cost of transporting the carrier to Wilmington would be about $7 million. And then there’s the prospect of an annual flow of attendance fees, sponsorships, and other revenues once the attraction is up and running.

It’s time for some modern-day Hugh Mortons to step forward and take up the cause of saving the Kitty Hawk. It would be an excellent way to encourage history education and appreciation among the citizens of the state, especially children, while preserving a valuable historical treasure and creating a new and exciting reason to visit the North Carolina coast. Furthermore, a replay of the SOS campaign would serve as a compelling illustration of how individuals acting in concert but without compulsion can address public needs in a free society.

Let’s get this done.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.