Be a GWW Crewmember!

Did you know you can show your support for Girls With Wings by joining our crew? No, you can't log flight time with us, but it's a great way to climb on board to join others whose dreams are taking flight.

Currently we have nearly 300 registered members, which allows us to track how many people we're reaching with GWW. Trust me, grant applications want to know what kind of reach we have. There are three levels of support, Support/Flight/ATC Crewmember, all defined on our website page here. All three levels get you a membership card and signed up for our monthly newsletter (latest issue here).

Support Crewmember is free, and the Flight Crewmember level is only $12/year - but it comes with a 10% discount code for use in our GWW online pilot shop. The Flight Crewmembers also receive either a pink or purple luggage handle wrap. Trust me, when you unload with a bunch of flight crews off the hotel shuttle, none of the guys are going to mistake your bag for theirs. It also makes your bags a lot more comfortable to carry.

The highest level of support for GWW is our ATC Crewmember. Air Traffic Control Crew is the membership option for families, companies, or other organizations to show their support for the mission of Girls With Wings. ATC's responsibility in the aviation world is to ensure safety, organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other support for pilots. The ability to offer these services for our Girls With Wings is $50 per year - and every cent of this payment will go to the scholarship fund. You will be specifically recognized in conjunction with the annual scholarship award detailed here. In addition, you will receive a letter of appreciation, newsletter registration AND 10% discount in the GWW online store. You will also receive a free Girls With Wings license plate frame! That is going to make your car look GOoood.

So why is this so important? Lynda, why you gotta take my time trying to sell me a membership??

Because on the application form I have people fill out a block for "How do you support the Girls With Wings Flight Plan?" I get such great answers, like:

This website took my breath away =] I only wish i knew about it earlier. I'm an aspiring 18 year old student pilot and i hope this website can help me as well as vice versa!

and

I think that the Flight Plan Girls With Wings created is a great way to spread the word about flying made available for everyone. I am only a high school sophomore and if I had known about the chance to fly earlier, it would have made me even more excited and ready to fly by the time I come of age. I hope that as I grow older, I can help show other young girls that they can have the same opportunities as I will be having in the near future. Hopefully more girls will know about flying and the number of girls who actually do fly and not just the boys who fly.

And this woman who signed up just recently:

Well, I actually only heard about this website a couple of days ago. I work at an FBO and a pilot came in and asked if I knew any little girls who would be interested in flying. I told him that I have a six year old daughter and he gave me the flyer and two little tattoos for her. He also showed me the picture of his granddaughter in the flyer. I thought that was really neat. I thought what he was doing was great, giving out flyers and letting people know about the website. So since I work at an FBO and have access to a lot of pilots and passengers coming through, I am going to hand out flyers and let them know about the website. This is going to be how I support the flight plan and let other little girls know that this is out there. If that man had never let me know, my daughter would be missing out on all of this.

So here's a picture of the flyer and the said granddaughter. Of course I knew exactly who this was. The guy's been one of my greatest supporters from day one. So I wrote him an email to ask him. Just to be sure. Because there are a lot of guys out there that do plug Girls With Wings. He has sent tons of pictures of Jaime, Jhennifer and Faith (and Connor!) for me to use on the website and brochures. I see him every year at the Oshkosh booth, but unfortunately rarely get a break to catch up with them.

He is currently on a trip in their Debonair with his wife from Canada to the southern U.S. as an early opportunity to thaw out a bit. Here's his response:

Hi Lynda;

Thanks so much for forwarding that letter from the FBO girl in Brunswick GA. She was very interested in your efforts to make little girls aware of their potential in aviation & technology & I think she will introduce her daughter to flying now. It continues to amaze me that even folks that already have a connection with flying don't think to get the girls involved.

I stick a brochure on every airport 'cork board' I stumble on & talk to 'flying people' about your efforts. They're always intrigued, especially women who have girls in their family. We'll continue passing along 'the word.'

Here's our surrogate grandchild - Pink Mouse keeping an eye on the receding snow-line passing Pellee Point on the way here.

Cheers, Mike

So there you go - everything ties in. YOU can show support for Girls With Wings with your membership. You can can also spread "the word" for GWW wherever you are, no matter your experience, location or gender. What's not to like? So sign up for your own membership here, and order brochures to hand out here. *We* still have a lot of work to do, getting our message out to all the young ladies. Please help!