MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. – For the third year, the Lightspeed Aviation Foundation has presented a $10,000 grant to Civil Air Patrol, one of five aviation charities chosen through online voting by the aviation community.
Lightspeed Aviation in Lake Oswego, Ore., and the Lightspeed Aviation Foundation have donated more than $250,000 in the past two years, impacting tens of thousands of lives around the world. CAP has been a recipient of a $10,000 Pilot’s Choice grant in each of the past two years.
Accepted by Susan Mallett, CAP’s youth development program coordinator, the 2012 grant from Lightspeed will be used to enhance and build CAP’s kindergarten through sixth-grade Aerospace Connections in Education program. The ACE program is intended to instill an interest in and awareness of science, technology, engineering and math as well as aviation careers. Along with academics, ACE promotes character education and physical fitness for living a healthy and drug-free lifestyle.
“We’d really like to thank Lightspeed Aviation Foundation, AOPA and the aviation community at large for voting for our organization,” said Mallett. “It’s a testament to the value of our organization and what people think about what we do to inspire young people toward future aviation careers, making sure we’re helping prepare the next generation of aviation enthusiasts, to help in disaster relief and search and rescue missions as well as all the wonderful community service projects CAP does for our nation.”
In addition to CAP, 2012 Pilot’s Choice Award recipients were JAARS; Mission Aviation Fellowship; The Ninety-Nines, Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Fund; and the Recreational Aviation Foundation. Go to LightspeedAviationFoundation.org to find out more about this year’s recipients.
“It’s exciting to be a part of an aviation community that is so engaged in supporting great organizations through this voting process,” said Allan Schrader, president of Lightspeed Aviation Foundation. “Each year, we have witnessed a growing wave of support for deserving aviation charities as evidenced by the record number of votes for the Pilot and Customer Choice Awards. I’m overwhelmed by the connections we can create around these core aviation issues of growth, advocacy and compassion.”
While the 2012 Pilot's Choice season has ended, Lightspeed customers still have the opportunity to vote for their favorite charity when they register online any Lightspeed products purchased this past year. Twenty finalists for these Customer Choice Awards will each receive cash distributions of no less than $1,000 and the top five organizations, as voted by customers, will each receive a check for $5,000. The voting window will be open until the end of March 2013. The Customer Choice Awards will be presented at Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Fla., April 9-14, 2013.
Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide, operating a fleet of 550 aircraft. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and is credited by the AFRCC with saving an average of 80 lives annually. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to nearly 27,000 young people currently participating in the CAP cadet programs. CAP received the World Peace Prize in 2011 and has been performing missions for America for 71 years. CAP also participates in Wreaths Across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans. Visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com or www.capvolunteernow.com for more information.
