A group of five Ray Scholars from around the Midwest organized a fly-out to Wittman Regional Airport this week to visit the EAA Aviation Museum and continue to bond over their shared aviation experience.
Noah Forcier, EAA 1309864; Connor Christianson, EAA 1360530; Jack Gavin, EAA 1235174; Jimmy Glazewski, EAA 1267701; and Joseph Ermel, EAA 1092243 were the five Scholars who made the trip, with Jack organizing the effort.
“With the Ray Scholars program we had the meeting at Oshkosh last year and we decided we wanted to get back together, due to this sense of camaraderie we have,” Jack said. “In lieu of AirVenture, we wanted to fly out to the EAA Museum.”
Four of the scholars have already completed their training, with Connor the sole exception as he was only awarded his Ray Aviation scholarship this month. He was able to ride in with Jimmy, who is also a member of EAA Chapter 838 in Racine, Wisconsin. Noah, a member of EAA Chapter 93, flew in from Madison, Wisconsin, and Jack, a member of EAA Chapter 1093 in Midland, Michigan, headed from there to Chicago to pick up Joseph, who is a member of Chapter 15 and Chapter 461 in Chicagoland area, before they finally headed to Oshkosh.
Jack said the enthusiasm to make the trip was immediately there from everybody in the group, although they each had to ask their parents for the final go-ahead considering they’re all still teenagers. “I love coming to the EAA Museum, and it’s just awesome coming together with my fellow pilots,” Jack said. “I wish all other Ray Scholars luck in getting their certificates, and I think the scholarship program is a great program EAA is running in conjunction with the Ray Foundation. It’s just great to see what’s coming out of it.”