Unique fundraiser supports backcountry organization

The Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) could have been given an award for most unusual fundraiser at the recent AOPA Aviation Summit. For $50, Summit attendees could buy a button-down shirt with the organization’s initials embroidered on it.

The shirts were all bought from a local Goodwill store for no more than $3.99 each, said Recreational Aviation Foundation administrator Trish McKenna, who came up with the idea. “I love Goodwill. I found a western shirt with pearl snaps and had one embroidered,” she said. “I bought 64 shirts, took them to a local laundry for cleaning and folding.”

McKenna said she then went to a local embroiderer with the shirts to be finished. “I let the embroiderers do what they wanted, just as long as they had our logo and initials somewhere on the shirt,” she said. RAF sold 60 shirts from its booth at Summit, she added.

The money will be used for the organization’s “Gittin’ It Done” campaign for projects including an inventory of all airstrips in the national forest; expanding its science and environmental committee to include scientist Mark Novak, who recently retired from a 35-year career with the U.S. Forest Service; opening the North Fox Island Airstrip in Michigan; and doing a study on how well the recreational use statute works in the states where it has been passed.