Bring Aviation to Elementary Schools

As part of The Foundation’s commitment to promote aviation careers, we’ve decided to work with disadvantaged schools in the New Jersey area initially, to educate kids about what it takes to become a pilot. We are planning to take this message to the schools beginning in September 2009. As we tried to come up with creative ideas and the best way to present the information, we discovered a New Jersey base company that creates educational materials for kids. CATAVIA KIDS was created by Teresa Villareal, an aeronautical engineer, who attended MIT, and has an impressive resume, working with Boeing for many years, she became aviation consultant before deciding she wanted to start her own company to educate kids about aviation. After we contacted Teresa, she was enthusiastic about we were doing and offered to donate copies of her Black Box CD ROM. Her award winning Black Box CD ROM teaches kids how airplanes fly, how air traffic control works, as well as the basics of flying, and recognizing different aircraft. No CD ROM would be fun for kids if it didn’t have games and prizes for completing various tasks. We are so grateful for CATAVIA KIDS sharing this technology with us.

We also discovered a great book for the really little kids called “Amelia and Emily Go for a Ride’. This children’s book is based on a flight Amelia Earhart took with Eleanor Roosevelt, a great book for inspiring young girls. There will probably always be fewer minorities and women in aviation. But what we’ve noticed in the seven years we have operated The Foundation is that we need to inspire young kids, so they realize if they are interested in becoming a pilot, they can achieve their goal, no matter what neighborhood they are from. Most pilots I have met, including my husband, knew they wanted to fly when they were really young. We want to try to make an impact as soon as we can. I want to see more minorities and women in aviation. And we need you - If you are a pilot who would like to make a difference in a child’s life - to give us a call, to help us out with our awareness program. One school visit every couple of months is all we ask. Try to remember when you were a kid how much it would have meant to have a “real pilot” come and talk to your school. It’s time to pay it forward.

Air Force Base Building Dedication

This past October, the Major LeRoy W. Homer Jr. Operations Building was dedicated at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH. I’m thinking they’ll have to shorten that name when they refer to it - maybe Homer Ops or some kind of acronym. The military seems to like acronyms.

LeRoy was with the Reserves here from 1995 until 2000. It felt strange to be in a place where LeRoy had spent so much time, a place that was part of our lives, but I had never seen, until now.

The dedication ceremony, like every other time I have been to an event honoring LeRoy, was bittersweet. I’m proud of him, but I’m heartbroken that he’s not here. During the ceremony there was an F-16 missing man flyover formation. I had seen this once before when LeRoy and I were at his ten year Air Force Academy reunion. Even then, not knowing the pilots the flyover was honoring, I remember how powerful it was. So when I found out they were planning a missing man formation at the ceremony, I was dreading it. And when it happened, it was pretty intense.

That afternoon we were given a tour of the Air Force Museum. It is really an amazing place. There’s aircraft from every conflict in history, rockets, space capsules and a presidential aircraft exhibit. Even the gift shop was cool. I bought some astronaut ice cream. Big hit with my kids, and my parents!

LeRoy flew the C-141 throughout his entire military career. The final C-141 retired in May 2006, is on display at the Museum .This aircraft, named the Hanoi Taxi, flew the first mission of Operation Homecoming in 1973 to return American prisoners of War from North Vietnam to the US. They told us LeRoy had flown that actual C-141.

If you are interested in aviation, even a little bit, the museum is definitely worth a visit to Dayton. And if you happen to be driving past the base, you can see the Major LeRoy W. Homer Jr. Operations building from the highway.

Melodie Homer

Welcome

Welcome to our new website.  We hope you enjoy the fresh design and new features.  We plan to use this blog to keep you updated on a more consistent basis, on aviation related issues, our accomplishments and any information we feel will be important to you, our supporters.  You will hear from different voices - other board members, past scholarship recipients - and anyone else who has something relevant to say regarding The Foundation, or aviation as a whole.

And most of all, we want you to hear our opinions, and sometimes our frustrations on running a successful organization.  For example, up to this point we have had little support from corporate aviation.  There are 3768 aerospace companies in the United States.  If every company donated $10.00, we would easily be able to award the three scholarships a year we had planned to when we began this endeavor six years ago.  And as we all know, corporations benefit when they donate.  And although the pilot shortage has been temporarily fixed due to the retirement age being extended from 60 to 65 years of age, this is only a short-term solution.

If I didn’t believe in what The Foundation is doing, I would have quit a long time ago.  The Foundation takes up A LOT of time, and I recently went back to work part-time, plus I’m a single mom to a four year old and an eight year old.  But I think aviation is exciting.  And so did LeRoy.  He just really enjoyed his job.  And even with all the cutbacks the airlines have made that have affected the pilot’s income and benefits, he would have still loved to fly.  I’m sure he would have shared his colleagues’ frustration, but he wouldn’t have let that ruin the pleasure he had in doing his job.

The Foundation has not had great support from other pilots, which is an irony I have difficulty understanding.  I always think that if someone can afford to go to Starbucks a few times a week, a $20.00 donation once a year to a Foundation that supports young adults who want to have the pleasure of doing what you do for a living, is not a lot to ask.

But I will end on a positive note and say that I do appreciate everyone who has and continues to carry on LeRoy’s legacy through this Foundation.  This year has been exciting for us as our first two scholarship recipients (2003) have started their professional aviation careers, Mike as a navy pilot, and Sarah as a flight officer with Mesa Airlines.  Very cool!