AOPA Foundation announces 2015 Giving Back grant recipients

The AOPA Foundation awards Giving Back grants of up to $10,000 to worthy causes that help promote aviation education and safety, preserve airports, increase the pilot population, or facilitate charitable work being done through general aviation. This year, three organizations and their missions are receiving grants.

• Build A Plane: AOPA Foundation grant funds will be used to implement an aircraft-building project designed to be a gang intervention program. Participants will build and refurbish an Aeronca Champ over a 12-month period to airworthiness condition. Upon completion of the project, participants will be given flight training in the completed Champ, which qualifies as a light sport aircraft.

• Hope Flight Foundation: The Hope Flight Foundation provides life-saving flights for seriously ill children, and AOPA Foundation grant funds will be used to cover upcoming flights in California, Nevada, and Oregon. When costly ambulance rides and commercial air transport are not an option, Hope Flight provides a solution.
• Sophie Gerson Healthy Youth: The AOPA Foundation grant will fund a weeklong aviation and space camp at the New York City Center for Space Science Education. The camp will be available to more than 30 low-income students from New York middle schools. Students will explore the principles of flight, train on flight simulators, build and fly model airplanes, and take part in simulated space missions.

“We’re extremely pleased to be able to support programs that will change the lives of young people,” AOPA Foundation Vice President Stephanie Kenyon. “The Giving Back grants are made possible by the generous donations of pilots and aviation enthusiasts who want to support the many ways general aviation helps others.”