Wings of Hope Celebrates 60th Anniversary Year With Renewed Sense of Mission

By Carmelo Turdo

Wings of Hope is now into their 60th anniversary year since the seeds of the current global humanitarian nonprofit organization were planted by a group of St. Louis businessmen providing funds for an aircraft to serve in Kenya. Since then, Wings of Hope has grown to change and save lives through the power of aviation in the U.S. and ten other countries in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America. Wings of Hope partners with local organizations outside of the U.S. that can support the use of aviation in sustainable humanitarian service to the local population in need. In the U.S., the Medical Relief & Air Transport (MAT) program provides air transportation services for patients needing specialized medical care within 900 miles of St. Louis. The MAT program serves over 200 patients per year flying over 100,000 miles. Two of the MAT program aircraft are shown below.

The Aero Experience attended the weekly staff and volunteer meeting on Tuesday hosted by Wings of Hope Interim President, Amy Buehler. She and the department directors gave concise status reports on their current and future projects, some of which are included here or will be featured in our story rotation throughout the year. Below are Amy Buehler giving an update on progress toward strategic goals for the year and Global Programs Manager, Wafa Osman, briefing the group on the mission of Samaritan Aviation in Papua New Guinea. Also during the meeting, those with February birthdays were recognized and cake was served! 

During our visit, we Checked on the March 1 raffle aircraft. It is receiving some finishing touches, and it will make the new owner very happy!  Two aircraft per year are raffled, with all proceeds going to support the mission of Wings of Hope. Each raffle sells out within days or even hours of the first ticket sales, and each winner receives a newly inspected and, in most cases, updated general aviation aircraft. Save this link for Raffle Day! 

A new long-term project is underway in the Wings of Hope hangar - the restoration of a Cessna 206 for future use in Tanzania. A team of volunteers has made progress since last month, and major assemblies are laid out as shown below. We will post regular updates as progress continues.

Planning is well underway for upcoming spring events sponsored by Wings of Hope: March Networking Event, SOAR Into STEM and the Wings of Hope Gala. SOAR Into STEM provides area high school students with a four-part course in basic aeronautics, along with a career fair and first flight experience. The annual Gala is the largest fund-raising event of the year for Wings of Hope. More information on these events can be found in the links above.

The Aero Experience looks forward to featuring Wings of Hope in our regular coverage throughout the coming year, and we encourage everyone to support their mission!