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News & Media You Can Fly: 2019 You Can Fly Challenge opens

You Can Fly: 2019 You Can Fly Challenge opens

Ray Foundation offers $2 million in matching funds

March 1, 2019 By Dan Namowitz
What if you could boost the general aviation pilot population and open career doors for aspiring pilots while knowing that every dollar you donate will have double its usual impact? A special opportunity to make such a high-performance contribution awaits donors who contribute to the Ray Foundation’s challenge: For every dollar the AOPA Foundation raises to fund the You Can Fly program by August 31, the Ray Foundation will match it up to $2 million, for a potential total of $4 million.
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AOPA announces 2019 scholarship program

AOPA will award 100 scholarships of $10,000 each, presenting 80 to exceptional aviation-minded high school students age 15 to 18, and 20 to teachers dedicated to advancing aviation education in their classrooms. The scholarships are made possible by a $1 million grant from the Ray Foundation to the AOPA Foundation. The application deadline for the 2019 You Can Fly High School Flight Training Scholarships is April 2, 2019, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

The You Can Fly program is getting and keeping more pilots flying with initiatives to introduce youth to aviation, improve the flight training experience, support flying clubs, and help lapsed pilots complete their flight review. Generous donors who contribute to the AOPA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, will strengthen GA by growing the pilot ranks, giving us strength in numbers as an aviation community, as well as for advocacy purposes.

This is the fourth year that the Ray Foundation has extended a challenge grant to the AOPA Foundation to provide major funding for You Can Fly. The 2019 challenge to raise $2 million in donations for a dollar-for-dollar matching grant is an increase over last year’s $1.4 million challenge. In 2018, donors rose to the challenge and contributed more than $1.8 million, and then the Ray Foundation generously increased its matching grant to $1.8 million, for a total of more than $3.6 million in funding.

The grant honors the memory of founder James C. Ray (1923–2017), a pilot and entrepreneur whose life experience taught him that personal flight training develops skills that help students succeed not just in aviation, but in many other aspects of life.

“James promoted by example the values of self-discipline, hard work, and responsibility for one’s own actions. His life’s work lives on through the You Can Fly program,” said AOPA President Mark Baker.

AOPA hopes members will join in supporting the programs that help pilots in all phases of their life. Your generous donations keep the momentum going—and all pilots benefit from that.

Email [email protected]

Web: https://foundation.aopa.org/challenge

AOPA’s You Can Fly program supports flying clubs, encourages best practices in flight training, gets lapsed pilots back in the air, brings AOPA’s resources and expertise to pilot groups across the country, and helps high school students learn more about careers in aviation. AOPA’s You Can Fly program and the AOPA Air Safety Institute are funded by charitable donations to the AOPA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization.

Web: www.aopafoundation.org/donate

Dan Namowitz

Dan Namowitz

Dan Namowitz has been writing for AOPA in a variety of capacities since 1991. He has been a flight instructor since 1990 and is a 35-year AOPA member.
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