Flight to raise funds for air charity

A farmer from Midale bought a plane ticket, but it’s no ordinary ticket — it cost $30,000 and most of it is going to charity.

Colin Rosengren and two other Saskatchewan residents are taking part in a 20,000-mile flight across Central and South America with the goal of raising $500,000 for Hope Air, a national charity that arranges free flights for Canadians in financial need who have to travel far from home for health care.

“The medical system gets more and more able to do things, but often times that involves specialists that require travel to get to them,” said Rosengren.

For families with kids who would otherwise have to drive hours and hours to get to specialist appointments, the charity is invaluable.

The Give Hope Wings fundraiser is being led by Dave McElroy, a pilot from Kelowna, B.C., and Russ Airey, a Windsor Ont. airman, as well as Harold Fast from Spiritwood, who will act as a co-pilot on the journey. There will be two two-seater planes that will hold the three pilots and a passenger.

“Hopefully, people see this as an example of what can be done by ordinary people,” said Fast.

The initiative has already raised close to $460,000 and they hope to reach $500,000, which Fast said would be enough to provide approximately 2,000 flights through Hope Air.

Fast grew up on a farm near Spiritwood. Now retired, he and his wife started a swine genetics company called Fast Genetics in 1982 and Harold was named to Saskatchewan’s Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2015. He has been flying for 20 years and with over 3,200 hours of experience, has often used his aircraft to raise money for good causes.

Rosengren donated $30,000 to participate in one of eight legs of the journey and is responsible for all of his own expenses during the trip, including hotels and food. He said he and his wife — who have a grain and cattle farm in Midale — were looking to make more charitable donations and after hearing about Hope Air, knew that is where the money would be well spent.

“It’s important that they can get there and have their families there and take some of that stress off,” Rosengren said about the families who need charities like Hope Air.

He will be travelling from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which will take about 10 days. Just finishing up his private pilot’s licence himself, Rosengren said it will be a good experience to travel with such experienced aviators.

The journey begins in Kelowna on Jan. 2. Two planes piloted by Airey and McElroy will travel south over the U.S., Mexico, Central America and South America before heading north along the east coast of Argentina and Brazil and over the Caribbean Islands to Florida, then back home to Canada.

There are two legs of the journey still available for a suggested donation of $30,000 and $20,000.

Woodrow Stewart, a farmer from Rockglen, will also be a passenger on one leg of the journey.

Hope Air provides over 1,000 flights a month to those in need. During the first 11 months of 2017, it arranged 453 flights for Saskatchewanians alone. According to data from the organization, if Hope Air hadn’t been able to assist those families, 35 per cent of them would have had to travel by car or bus for four to 12 hours or more each way and 28 per cent would have had to cancel or postpone their appointment.

On top of raising money for a good cause, Fast said Give Hope Wings is meant “to inspire people, especially young Canadians, to become involved in aviation and to dream big.”

To track the journey in real time visit share.garmin.com/GiveHopeWings.