It is not often that you can save a kid’s life and win an airplane with the lessons to learn to fly it! Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Wings of Hope does this each year with its Annual Raffle. And this year’s winners are Josh Bissey of Wisconsin (above) and Sidney Ganz of Missouri. Josh won the 1975 Cessna 150 plus a scholarship for his private pilots license and Sid won a scholarship for his PPL.
Each were chosen at random from the 3,000 entries in the 2012 raffle.
Doug Clements, president of Wings of Hope, said “Each year this raffle raises money to save American kids’ lives. These kids have major birth defects and need very advanced medical care that their parents are not able to locate or access. We arrange for that care and then use a fleet of air ambulances to transport these 700-plus kids annually, as many times as it takes. The aircraft are not only well equipped, but also have certified airborne medical crews on-board. And there is no charge for any Wings of Hope services.”
Information on the 2013 raffle is available here.
The new 2013 Raffle information is available at wingsofhoperaffle.org.
Wings of Hope is a global humanitarian organization headquartered in St. Louis. It operates 155 bases in 46 countries, providing every manner of assistance. More than 1 million people are served annually. Founded in 1962, it is the largest and oldest volunteer aviation charity in the world and the largest volunteer charity in the Midwest. Wings of Hope has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Wings of Hope created the Medical Relief and Air Transport (MAT) program in 2003 with the goal of providing equal access to advanced medical care to all children. The MAT provides service to more than 700 patients every year.