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Funding Appeal for the "Ella Roberta Activity Centre"

Many of you are aware of the activities of the “Get High Volare” Charity (GHV), bringing flying opportunities and STEM training to a new generation of young aviators.

You may also have been aware of the “Ella Roberta”, a Quantum 912 Flexwing Microlight, which we have used to give scores of young people their first taste of flight.

The “Ella Roberta” was named after Ella Roberta Kissi-Debrah, a 9 year old girl, who sadly died of a rare form of Asthma, as the result of exposure to Traffic pollution from living close to the South Circular in Lewisham. Ella's only dream was to become a pilot, but sadly this was not to be the case. Her story moved us so much, that we decided to name our principal aircraft after her.

However, at GHV, we have always been handicapped, by not having our own airfield to operate from. Our own “home” airfield, where we can build in stone for the long term future. Also we feel that Ella needed a more long-term. lasting legacy than just her name on an aeroplane, and so the idea for the “Ella Roberta Activity Centre” was born.

Our search for an airfield was long and convoluted, but finally, we have found the ideal place. A lovely field in a beautiful place in the fresh air of rural South Wales (looking for all the world like “TellyTubby land”), where we can build something that generations of young people, can use, enjoy, contribute to, and be proud of.

All we need to do now is to pay for it...

Therefore, we are now launching an appeal to everybody involved in Aviation to help us achieve this goal.

This really will be Richard Bach's “School for perfection” he talked about in “A gift of wings”, a place where young people need only ambition and enthusiasm to achieve their dream (in much the way we all did in the very beginning).

We are calling on all Pilots, and Aviation professionals to help us achieve this. It is not a huge undertaking, it is only a 16 acre field that will permit a 300 metre runway, but it will be fine for our needs, and thus this is “chump change” to a large company, and is not going to break anybody's bank. For those that contribute this will be their lasting legacy too, knowing that they have contributed towards helping the next generation of aviators up the first rungs of the ladder.

If you are an Aviation professional, or just love flight and flying with a passion, and in recognition of your good fortune in being able to do it have ever felt like you wanted to “give back” in some tangible and permanent way? This is your opportunity.

So whatever you fly, whether you fly Military jets, Airliners, Helicopters (or simply bimble around a circuit behind a Rotax 447), we can all do our bit. Could you please talk to all your Managers, Directors, Airline owners, Maintenance organisations, and even celebrities and pop stars who charter your aircraft regularly, from wherever you are in the world (British pilots are of course sought the world over), and ask them to make a respectable contribution to this most worthy cause.

Also, club pilots could you please organise a fundraising Dinner or BBQ, Competition or Quiz (anything?) to put a few pounds in a hat for us..? Just this once..? If everybody reading this just does something to help we will soon reach our goal.

Remember, the children we teach to fly today will become the pilots and engineers of tomorrow, but we need a “home” airfield to give us the firm foundations to build upon, and one that Ella herself would have been proud to be a part of. Plus of course the upside is, that an airfield owned outright by a Charity, will always be an airfield, and we have precious few of them left now.

This airfield will be called the “Ella Roberta Activity Centre”, and as well as teaching flying skills and aviation related STEM, it will also give children from all backgrounds a wide range of other opportunities that are not accessible in an urban environment. We want the tragedy of this keen little girls passing, to create a lasting legacy for generations of children to come.

We only need to raise about £250,000 in total, but we can secure the field for significantly less. Every penny you can either contribute yourself, or persuade your employers, or “well heeled” associates to contribute, will bring us that much closer to our goal. We want to build for the future, and we want every brick we lay to be “our” brick, and there forever (not just until a lease expires and yet another airfield becomes a housing estate).

We are building something for posterity, not for some short term initiative, and we hope that all of our contributors recognise the crucial value of their contribution at this key moment in our history. We simply cannot achieve this without you.

Can you help us please..?

Our Bank details are:-

Name:- GET HIGH VOLARE
Account number :- 22419260
Sort Code:- 30-97-77


Tim Wiltshire
Trustee Operations
GET HIGH VOLARE
www.gethighvolare.org


07752 257277