Welcome
Welcome to our new website. We hope you enjoy the fresh design and new features. We plan to use this blog to keep you updated on a more consistent basis, on aviation related issues, our accomplishments and any information we feel will be important to you, our supporters. You will hear from different voices – other board members, past scholarship recipients – and anyone else who has something relevant to say regarding The Foundation, or aviation as a whole.
And most of all, we want you to hear our opinions, and sometimes our frustrations on running a successful organization. For example, up to this point we have had little support from corporate aviation. There are 3768 aerospace companies in the United States. If every company donated $10.00, we would easily be able to award the three scholarships a year we had planned to when we began this endeavor six years ago. And as we all know, corporations benefit when they donate. And although the pilot shortage has been temporarily fixed due to the retirement age being extended from 60 to 65 years of age, this is only a short-term solution.
If I didn’t believe in what The Foundation is doing, I would have quit a long time ago. The Foundation takes up A LOT of time, and I recently went back to work part-time, plus I’m a single mom to a four year old and an eight year old. But I think aviation is exciting. And so did LeRoy. He just really enjoyed his job. And even with all the cutbacks the airlines have made that have affected the pilot’s income and benefits, he would have still loved to fly. I’m sure he would have shared his colleagues’ frustration, but he wouldn’t have let that ruin the pleasure he had in doing his job.
The Foundation has not had great support from other pilots, which is an irony I have difficulty understanding. I always think that if someone can afford to go to Starbucks a few times a week, a $20.00 donation once a year to a Foundation that supports young adults who want to have the pleasure of doing what you do for a living, is not a lot to ask.
But I will end on a positive note and say that I do appreciate everyone who has and continues to carry on LeRoy’s legacy through this Foundation. This year has been exciting for us as our first two scholarship recipients (2003) have started their professional aviation careers, Mike as a navy pilot, and Sarah as a flight officer with Mesa Airlines. Very cool!
Bless you and your family–especially on this day, Sept. 11th.
I never met your husband but love coming to your site and reading about him. We are blessed as a nation to have such role models like your husband. You have done a beautiful job in creating a way so his memory will live forever. God bless you and may your foundation flourish.
I was a high school, yes high school freind of LeRoy’s. As a matter of fact, I sat in front of him for our 4 years at St. John’s. We have shared many converstaions during that time.I will always fondly remember those days. Since that time, I have seen the documentarys and films surrounding the events of that fateful day. It is almost surreal, as I am sure you must know, watching someone else’s interpretation of those events. I consider LeRoy one of the heroes of that awfuk day, and even now, 7 years later, I think of his action’s often.
Sincerely,
Joe Hoffman
SJB class of ’83
Hi, I feel very grateful for you making this organization, myself I am in the Civil Air Patrol and am planning to become a missionary pilot for MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) My prayers go out to you, your family, and anyone else suffering their terrible loss from September eleventh. The video was wonderful, though I didn’t meet or know your husband, I look at those pilots and passengers that gave their lives that day, and am very grateful.
-God Bless, Jesus loves you and cares for you! 🙂
To the LeRoy W. Homer Foundation,
Thank you again for affording me this wonderful opportunity to pursue my life in the professional aspect of flying. I have been flying for approximately three years now, and now I am having the privilege of teachings other on how to get their Private Pilot’s license. I never thought that when I got my Private, I would be teaching others on how to get theirs. Time really flies when you’re having fun.
Keep your wings upright!
~Ryan J. Wright
Dayton, OH