By Mike Franceus, Chairman/Founder of The Debbie Franceus Memorial Aviation Foundation
“Learning to fly has to be one of the greatest rewards a person can experience. It challenges your personal abilities, sharpens your skills as a decision maker, brings forward a huge sense of accomplishment, and last, but not least, brings you rewards that can take you places you never thought you could go.”
Those are the words my wife and private pilot Debbie Franceus of Temperance, Michigan, spoke at gatherings as she rallied female pilots throughout the upper Midwestern U.S. to step out of their comfort zone, join the aviation community, and learn to fly airplanes.
Debbie and I began flying together in July 1979 when I received my private pilot certificate. After many years of renting, we took the leap and became aircraft owners in 2011. Debbie flew right seat for those years and was an excellent SIC (second in command), but somehow, that just wasn’t enough. At the age of 61 years old, Debbie, the mother of three and grandmother of nine, decided it was time she took the left seat of the airplane she and I had been flying throughout the U.S. over the last 12 years, a wonderfully upgraded 1962 Beech Debonair that we used to visit family and friends. So in 2019, she signed up for formal lessons at Toledo Suburban Airport (KDUH) in Ottawa Lake, Michigan, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Debbie immediately became a member of the Ninety-Nine’s, International Organization of Women Pilots. Throughout her flight training, Debbie attended countless flying events throughout the upper Midwest and rallied women of all ages to pursue their dreams in aviation. Finally, in July 2021, at the young age of 63, Debbie passed her private pilot checkride in a Cessna 172 and began dreaming about flying from the left seat of our high-performance Beechcraft.
But some dreams are interrupted and get cut short. Debbie faced a new challenge in February 2022, just one month after her retirement from 44 years as a nurse and health care provider. Her focus abruptly changed to fight triple negative Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, more commonly known as breast cancer. She fought heroically, with the same gumption and tenacity she showed as she learned to fly. After a 10-month battle, traveling throughout the U.S. for all her treatment options, Debbie lost her fight and succumbed to cancer.
So, the enthusiastic cheerleader for getting more women into the cockpit, to fly either personally or professionally, was apparently stopped in her tracks. But not for long.
Shortly after Debbie’s passing in January 2023, I decided that Debbie’s mission must carry on. Consequently, in May 2023, The Debbie Franceus Memorial Aviation Foundation was founded to award aspiring female flight students and female pilots working on advanced ratings the resources they need to achieve their dream to fly through its yearly scholarship program.
Last year, on July 9, 2023, at its inaugural award event at Debbie’s home airport, I awarded its first scholarships to two Midwestern female flight students working to achieve their private pilot ratings. The scholarship award event was well attended and coupled with a warbird fly-in, and it received local television and newspaper media coverage. The new 501(c)(3) that started as a twinkle in Debbie’s eyes to help women achieve their dreams to fly was up and running. Many thanks go out to Rick Stansley and the team at KDUH for their support in this amazing endeavor.
Fast forward to present day, 2024. The Debbie Franceus Memorial Aviation Foundation has now begun its 2024 scholarship program. With an application deadline of June 15, qualifying women of all ages throughout the U.S. can apply for one of nine aviation scholarships being offered by the foundation. The top scholarship winner will receive $3,500 toward their flight training with eight other scholarships being given of varying dollar amounts. Already, more than 65 flight schools in the six Midwestern states of Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois are showing support for the Foundation and are engaging their female flight students to apply for this new scholarship opportunity.
For The Debbie Franceus Memorial Aviation Foundation, this is just the beginning. The Foundation has recently been awarded the 2024 Platinum Seal of Transparency by Guidestar/Candid, one of the largest charity rating organizations in the United States, showing the Foundation’s commitment to its donors and friends that the Foundation will carry out its mission with a strategic growth plan and strong operating practices.
As founder and chairman of this new foundation, I and my board of directors have plans to grow the foundation’s awareness campaign over the next three to five years by reaching out to flight schools throughout the U.S., creating a coast-to-coast presence and awareness of this new scholarship program. Yearly award dollar amounts will be announced each April 1, and awards will be distributed to the flight schools of the scholarship recipients annually during the second week in July, known at each supporting flight school as “Debbie Franceus Memorial Aviation Scholarship Week.”
My hope is that, because of the influence that Debbie had on every woman she encountered, that all women who wish to fly can have the resources to do so. That was Debbie’s dream, and now it is my dream as well.
For more information about the Debbie Franceus Memorial Aviation Foundation and its aviation scholarship program, please visit DebbieFlies.com.
Fly often and fly safe!