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Valley View, MT – July 30, 2007 – Valley View Elementary School held the "Flight for Reading" program for the second time on June 1st at Polson Airport in Montana with the help from EAA Chapter 1122 members. It has been a fantastic event to share with the children, and given them the ability to achieve their goal of flying through reading.
The program began last year at the tiny two-room school southwest of Polson. Several but not all of the students flew last year, but this year 100 percent of the students in grades four through six completed the necessary reading and was awarded a flight.
My husband, Lee has flown our two children to school on many occasions and many children get excited seeing the plane at school. In addition, I have always tried to relate reading with flight and thought this idea up. I approached the Montana Pilot's Association as well as the school and everyone was very willing and pleased to help with this program. I couldn't have done any of this had there not been people who were backing it up and supporting it like they did. The Montana Pilot's Association was wonderful and they made each of the children feel like a true pilot when they flew them on the June 1st.
In May, ten pilots from Valley Hangar of the Montana Pilots Association spent the day with students in their classroom, sharing stories of their careers and flight. Lee Lytton in his C-140 tail dragger and Bob Snyder in his Kit foxtail dragger flew out and landed in the fields by the school. Joe Walchuck also flew his helicopter to the school. The children were so excited and it really was neat seeing the planes flying overhead and watching them land right at the school.
The teacher, Joe Wing, has been such an inspiration to these children through this idea and has allowed them to think “above the clouds” through his teaching. I can't thank him enough for the time and effort he put forth in this program. He shared so much with the children through science regarding flight, as well as in history and math classes.
Joe has flown all his life with his dad, who is a pilot. Now Joe is in the preliminary stages in acquiring his own pilot's license. It made this all come together beautifully when you had a teacher that supports flying and reading.
All of the pilots who helped were Mauri Morin, Art Lindstrom, Bob Snyder, Trey Moran, Nels Jensen, Tim Moran, R.E. "Hawkeye" Hughs, Glenn Timm, Lee Lytton, Chuck Jarecki, Bud and Bobbi Radke and Joe Walchuck.
The biggest factor for me to have instilled in them is the fact that, "Readers are Leaders". I believe each of these children is a leader through their reading and they all succeeded in so many ways. The look on these children's faces when they got in their plane and flew overwhelming for me to see. I had tears in my eyes knowing that something good had come from this program.
We had an awards ceremony after the children received their flight. Each of the children received an embroidered hooded sweatshirt that I made that said, “Flight for Reading" with an airplane on it and then to top it off, Mr. Wing made each of the children Certificates that went along with their Young Eagle's Certificates that stated they had completed their required flight program and they each received honorable discharges as well as "wing" pins that we pinned on their sweatshirts. The children presented to each of the pilots caps that had the "Flight for Reading" logo on it as a way of thanking them for their help and efforts.
The EAA Young Eagles Program made this happen for the children. In fact, I have had some approach from the other Polson schools here in wanting to incorporate this same idea in their schools. So it is catching on and I will try to do what I can to help get this into other schools. But it starts with a good organization, the Young Eagles program; a great pilot's organization, the Montana Pilot's Association and teachers, Mr. Joe Wing. And we were fortunate to have all three of the above.
Submitted by: Pam Lytton – Coordinator of program and Valley View Teacher and Parent
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Valley View Elementary students with their teacher, Joe Wing
Wyatt Lytton presented a cap to Mauri Mori and Chuck Jarecki, Trey Moran and R.E. "Hawkeye" Hughes in background (L-R)
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