If you’re a pilot, you would be jealous of the view from my office. It’s a simple place – no leather couches or plush carpeting, but it’s the best place for me. All day long, I look out the floor to ceiling windows and watch airplanes taking off and landing. I see flight instructors and their students, businessmen leaving for a trip and friends preflighting for a pleasure flight. As I said, it’s the best view for me.

I am grateful for this unique office view, just as I am for my decades-long career in aviation. I can’t think of a better career, and my gratitude for all the pleasure that aviation has provided Sandy and me is the desire to give back. With that in mind, we launched The Sporty’s Foundation in order to fund organizations which attract people to aviation, which chronicle our rich history, which work to provide the next generation of pilots and technicians. We need a robust group of people who follow in our footsteps and reap all the lifestyle and career benefits that aviation has to offer.  Specifically, we need to keep general aviation healthy.

Here you’ll see our efforts for 2018. We’ve funded scholarships, donated to museums, enhanced Aviation Exploring, along with a number of other financial grants to enrich aviation and attract more young people. I’ve said this before, but it’s important that you know that Sporty’s underwrites all the administrative costs of The Sporty’s Foundation. Unlike other charities with exorbitant executive salaries and overhead, every dollar you donate goes directly to the programs – right down to the last dime.

For those of us to whom aviation means so much and has given us so much, we are called to give back. Won’t you join me?

Best regards,

Hal Shevers