Fri, Jul 15, 2011
Special Olympics Airlift, Medical Flights Receive 2011 Public
Benefit Flying Awards
The National Aeronautic Association (NAA), in partnership with
the Air Care Alliance, a nationwide league of humanitarian flying
organizations, has announced the recipients of the 2011 National
Public Benefit Flying Awards. They are:
- Distinguished Volunteer Pilot – Dr. Lewis Young has
provided more than 700 flights since 2001 for Angel Flight Central,
a volunteer organization that provides long-distance transportation
at times of personal and community crisis.
- Distinguished Volunteers – Dick Gooch has provided
volunteer services for Angel Flight Central for over 14 years as a
volunteer staff member, outreach ambassador, board member, and
advocate for patients, pilots and staff. Larry Lemke’s
extraordinary Wings of Hope program, which he joined in 1995 and
has chaired since 2004, provides humanitarian efforts worldwide.
Lemke has flown more than 1100 U.S. flights and worked more than
7,000 hours in charitable efforts providing advanced health care to
impoverished people.
- Outstanding Achievement in Public Benefit Flying – For
more than 25 years Bruce Robin Stoddard and Wright Flight have used
the powerful motivator of aviation to help America’s children
stay in school and attain higher personal and educational
goals. Relying almost entirely on volunteer teachers, pilots,
and ground crews, the program currently operates in nine states and
has more than 20,000 graduates.
- Champion of Public Benefit Flying – In July 2010, the
Citation Special Olympics Airlift capped a two-year planning effort
led by Cessna Aircraft Company, involving more than 200 employee
volunteers and some 160 volunteer Cessna Citation business jets to
provide transportation for Special Olympics athletes from around
the country to the quadrennial Special Olympics USA National
Games.
“I am very proud of the recipients of the 2011 Public
Benefit Flying Awards,” said NAA President and CEO Jonathan
Gaffney. “All of the nominations were worthy, but the
list of our honorees demonstrates again the diversity of public
benefit flying in America and the many different people who benefit
from it.”
Air Care Alliance Chairman Rol Murrow notes, “Each year
thousand of volunteers in aviation quietly work to fly patients for
care, provide educational flights for youth, support environmental
causes, serve in times of emergencies, help our veterans, and
provide help in many other ways to those in need. Along with
NAA, we are pleased to be able to work with leaders in our
Nation’s capitol to honor these selfless individuals, their
groups, and those who provide essential support for
them.”
The Public Benefit Flying Awards were created to honor volunteer
pilots, other volunteers, and their organizations engaged in flying
to help others, and those supporting such work. Since 2003, dozens
of awards have been presented at the celebratory Above and Beyond
Awards Ceremony, which this year will be held on Thursday,
September 15, 2011, in the Lyndon B. Johnson Room of the U.S.
Senate.
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