Welcome to this first issue of our Give Hope Wings Newsletter. Russ Airey, Captain of C-GTDP, has volunteered to spearhead this initiative. This issue will update our supporters and inform many others about our significant pro-ject to raise over $500,000 for Hope Air.

I want to recognize our Title Sponsor at the outset - First Choice Haircutters. Like Hope Air, this commu-nity-minded organisation serves Canadians from Vancouver Island to New-foundland. We are most grateful for their deep fi-nancial contribution as well as their continuing support as we work to meet / ex-ceed our ambitious fund-raising target.

As you will see overleaf, Hope Air has again broken

all previous flight volumes in the first half of 2017. This underscores the im-portance of our project to assist in the funding of this

growth. Hope Air has been providing free medi-cal flights for Canadians over the past 30 years; the story of just one of them appears later in this issue. There are more than 117,000 others.

Our final story speaks of an

unusual opportunity: A few

generous Volunteer Flight

Crew Members will fly with

us for part of our incredible

2018 odyssey around the

Americas. Will you be one of

them?

Welcome to the initial Give Hope Wings (GHW) news-letter. The Crew will be pub-lishing several additional issues, before departure and certainly wrapping up the trip upon return to Canada in the spring of 2018. Our hope is that our supporters and followers will find the

stories (and pictures) inter-esting and informative as we move through the different stages of the GHW cam-paign and into the epic flight itself.

We appreciate the support we have received from across the country, both

monetary and otherwise and the crew wants to keep you all updated on our progress. While we have a significant presence on the web and Facebook, we also realize that not everyone monitors social media to stay in-formed and, print still mat-ters.

Publisher’s note

Commander’s Message

Inside this issue:

Title Sponsor Message Our Corporate Sponsors

2

Hope Air Update Profile of Hope

3

Crew Profile—Harold Fast GHW Flight Plan

4

Campaign Update Volunteer Flight Crew

5

Upcoming Events 6

Campaign Update 5

Flying Sponsorship 5

Summer 2017

One Epic Flight to Launch Hundreds of Others

Nonetheless, there are a num-ber of links throughout this e-newsletter which will lead you to additional information and cer-tainly how to contact the crew to find out how to contribute to this worthy and noble cause.

Blue Skies !

Page 2 Summer 2017

First Choice Haircutters is proud to be the Title Sponsor of the Give Hope Wings initiative. As a family-focused company that is deeply-rooted in communities across Canada, we’re honoured to partner with Hope Air and its inspiring mission to help those in need.

The life-changing work that Hope Air is doing across Canada is com-pletely aligned with our

commitment to providing a positive impact within our local communities from coast to coast.

We recognize the im-portance of giving back to the local community by extending our gratitude and partnership to Give Hope Wings and look for-ward to our partnership throughout this uplifting initiative.

First Choice Haircutters - Title Sponsor

Our Generous Corporate Sponsors

Page 3 Give Hope Wings

At Hope Air, we believe that all Canadians should have access to our healthcare system. But so many of our fellow Canadi-ans must travel hundreds of kilometers to get to the door of their doctor’s office, putting specialized medical care just our of reach for many families.

Through the first six months of 2017, Hope Air made 6,469 travel arrange-ments for patients travel-ling to medical care. A free flight helps our patients get to their appointments with-out spending hours on the road, which adds to their stress and puts their well-being at risk.

If Hope Air had been una-ble to assist, 29% of pa-tients would have can-celled or rescheduled their appointments. Timely ac-cess to medical care changes health outcomes for the better.

By supporting Give Hope Wings, you give hope to families that are facing difficult circumstances. You put cures and treat-ments within reach, and allow patients to spend less time worrying about the logistics of getting to care, and more time focus-ing on what is truly im-portant—their health.

Click here to read more about Hope Air’s busy summer and the profound impact your help has on people across the country.

Hope Air Update

scans showed that Jenifer had spinal stenosis, a nar-rowing of the spinal canal that can be hereditary or acquired through trauma.

Jenifer’s treatment in-volved travelling to Toronto from her home in North Bay for surgery. “That’s a long drive for me. I used to have to stop three to four times,” she says. Hope Air arranged for Jenifer to fly to her treatment, where she had surgery on her back. “After I found Hope Air, everything fell in to place.”

Thirty years ago, Jenifer Swannell started experi-encing spasms in her left leg and sometimes her joints would dislodge with little warning. Doctors didn’t know what was causing Jenifer’s pain; over the years, they pre-scribed her various drugs, but none could alleviate her symptoms.

Finally, Jenifer saw a rheumatologist who sent her for an MRI. In only one day, thirty years of wondering what had been causing her pain and spasms was resolved; the

Hope Air - Profile of Hope Testimonial:

My family and I wish to thank you for the work you do in respect to helping folks travel due to medical referrals. My family was devastated when esopha-geal cancer was my diag-nosis. So much insecurity comes into families when such health issues occur, from longevity to finance.

The flights you provided for me to get to Vancouver to have a PET scan boost-ed our ability to deal with this diagnosis. It is nice knowing that others care. We are very grateful, thank you. – Johnathan, Kelowna, BC

Page 4 Summer 2017

out enough paperwork to, well, throw an RV aircraft out of weight & balance. And on top of all that, the lifeblood of GA aircraft, 100LL Avgas, is not all that common south of the equator! But, as most seasoned pilots know, a long cross country is just: one take-off, one flight-plan and one land-ing at a time.

Well, six months to launch and the GHW flight plan is 95% complete. It’s been a year since project incep-tion and the 20,000 mile flight plan has certainly been the most challenging I have ever attempted.

The 20 country route has us: crossing borders 4 days in a row, navigating vast stretches of rainforest, desert, mountainous ter-rain and open water, filling

I will include more flight details in the September newsletter as we near departure. Also, the en-tire flight will be tracked real-time via a flight track-er map on the GHW route webpage. The crew will also post daily stories and pictures on the GHW Facebook page.

Russ

Flight Planning

Give Hope Wings

Harold Fast has held a private pilot’s license for 20+ years, for some years using his Cessna to support the Pig Ge-netic company he and wife Marjie founded in 1982.

While most of his flying has been in the Prairies and the US Midwest, he has made trips to Mexi-co and an excursion down to Chillan Chile. Harold has also joined

up with Air Safari Inter-national, flying through east/central Australia and this past Spring with another pilot group that circumnavigated the UK and Ireland.

As many pilots do, Har-old often donates flights as charity fund raisers, where flights to Sas-katchewan Rider games are certain to bring top bids, as does supper in La Ronge Sask. and a

tour of Robertson’s Trad-ing post with their collec-tion of first nation handi-craft.

For years the Fasts and neighbours have, at their farm strip, hosted a Fly in breakfast where pro-ceeds in a donation buck-et has been to support MS research at a Wask-esiu Bikathon, this sum-mer’s Fly in will be in sup-port of Give Hope Wings.

Crew Profile - Harold Fast

‘Friends of Hope Air’ recognized on C-GTDP Harold at the Kelowna BC COPA convention

On Jan 8, 2017, Give Hope Wings announced the start of its 18 month campaign to fundraise for Hope Air. The original goal was to raise at least $400,000 for Hope Air through Corporate Sponsor-ships, group and individual donations.

By July 1st, six months into the campaign, we passed the $200,000 mark in funds raised– halfway towards our original goal. As the de-mand for Hope Air flights has continued to increase, the crew realized that we needed to do more.

We are delighted to an-nounce that we’ve pushed our target to $500,000—or more. We need to do more to help ensure those requir-ing transportation to much needed healthcare do not get left behind.

While we are very proud of

our Corporate Sponsors and their generous dona-tions, a large part of the success to-date has been through our individual and group donations. Friends of Hope Air donations ($1000 or greater) from both groups as well as indi-viduals add up to the larg-est donor base. Why not inspire your existing: church group, ball team, social group etc. and be-come the next Friend of Hope Air? Your group or name will be prominently displayed on the side of the aircraft during the cam-paign period and through the Epic Flight. 100% of your donation goes directly to Hope Air and to the Ca-nadians that they serve.

Campaign Update

Page 5

ments on our 20,000 mile odyssey. But the opportuni-ties are slipping past; three of the eight segments are already spoken for and there is interest in several others.

The crew is making this op-portunity available to those who are interested in helping Hope Air and fellow Canadi-ans. We are searching for generous supporters (pilots or non-pilots), who are look-ing to ‘give back’ and have a trip of their lifetime.

To find out more and view the opportunities, click here.

WANTED: Adventurous souls searching for a once-in-a-lifetime oppor-tunity: to view the planet in ways very few get to experience. See land-scapes from the air, and ground in a couple weeks that would take years to do otherwise. Visit natural wonders, amazing cul-tures and ancient lands. Travel through time.

Intrigued? The Give Hope Wings crew is searching for those that want this and so much more. We have an empty seat in one of our two aircraft. You can be part of this great adven-ture by joining us for one of eight unique flight seg-

Volunteer Flight Crew

$ 500,000

$ 232,628

As of 7.24.17

Iguazu Falls

Atacama Desert

In January / February 2018, two high-performance aircraft and three crew will fly 20,000 miles while circumnavigating Central and South America and stop-ping in 20 countries. Give Hope Wings is comprised of two airplanes and three crew members – but it’s much more than that. It’s an idea born of the passions of three men - passions about generosity, flying and comradery.

In 2016, Dave McElroy and Russ Airey met while they were part of a 6-plane, 6000 mile epic flight across the Canadian Arctic and Alaskan wildernesses. Soon after that, Dave conceived an idea integrating his love of flight and ad-venture with the desire to “give back.” He presented his concept to Russ and Give Hope Wings was born. The crew soon fleshed out when Harold Fast joined. Harold is also a seasoned instrument-rated pilot, and an extraordinarily generous benefactor of this expedition. He fully supports the mission and goals of the enterprise. In addition to raising at least $500,000 for Hope Air, the crew also intends to increase awareness of this unique Canadian charity and its life-saving work.

Crew

Dave McElroy dave@givehopewings.ca

Russ Airey russ@givehopewings.ca

Harold Fast

harold@givehopewings.ca

Hope Air 1.877.346.4673

mail@hopeair.ca

Speaking Engagements

Aug 8-11 CBAA Aerospace Expo, Abbotsford BC

Aug 11-13 Abbotsford International Airshow

Aug 13 Fast Farms annual fly-in, Spiritwood SK

Aug 8 Sardis Kiwanis Club, Chilliwack BC

Aug 22 BCGAA AGM, Pitt Meadows BC

Sept 7 Airdrie Flying Club AB

Sept 13 Victoria Rotary Club BC

Oct 10 Penticton Flying Club BC

Shows / Fly-ins

Won’t you join Give Hope Wings at an upcoming event?

Can’t attend one of our scheduled events? Why not contact a crew member to see if we can attend one of yours?