Happy December! Now that the Holiday spirit is in full swing, start off the month on an affirming note by spreading your love of aviation and travel to others.
In other words, there are two AWESOME initiatives that you can support, be it miles, points or patronage, to give back to the next generation of young fliers.
These are the two organizations that I am sponsoring this Season:
- The Make a Wish Foundation, where your miles can be used to help kids and their families travel, and
- The Institute of Flight, to help send 20 kids to STEAM Camp (STEAM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) at Boeing’s Future of Flight in Seattle.
It’s Incredibly Easy to Give. It’s Even Better for Them to Get.
If you are donating to the Make A Wish Foundation, which is a global non-profit that provides dream trips for children between the ages of 3 and 17 who have life-threatening medical conditions, then clicking on this form will take you straight to the donation page. Roughly 77% of the Wishes from the Children involve air travel, and the awesome reasons to donate to this donation is multi-faceted:
- The miles you donate will never expire (meaning your donations could be used for years to come!)
- You can contribute as a member of most of the major U.S. carrier loyalty programs, including American, Delta, United, Southwest and JetBlue. Unfortunately, Alaska, Hawaiian, Frontier, Spirit and Virgin America do not participate in this program, for now.
- The minimum donation amounts are not exhaustive, meaning that even if you only have a few hundred miles lying around that you won’t use, or are maybe due to expire, this would be a FANTASTIC way to make sure they can go to the right home.
Within the form, if you are a Delta SkyMiles member or a United MileagePlus member, you can enter in your account credentials right into the form. It took me less than 30 seconds. If you are an American Airlines AAdvantage member, a Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards member or a JetBlue True Blue member, you will be taken via third party link to a separate page.
If You Went to Space Camp as a Kid, You’ll Want to Give to STEAM
The Institute of Flight in Multikeo, Washington (right next to Paine Field, where the magic of Boeing takes place) offers week-long summer camps in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Technology. The STEAM Camp is designed for kids in grades 4-8, and places a huge emphasis on 3-dimensional modeling.
If you’re like me, you could be satisfied for days on end building LEGO models, even as an adult. Imagine giving that same opportunity to a group of talented minds who will get to play around with cool software, known as, “Sketch-up” to build round objects, buildings, perhaps even airplanes…I’m telling you, I got to play with some of these toys when I attended Aviation Geek Fest in April, and few things feel more exhilarating than watching a 3-D model, that you designed, make its way to the printer.
For those reasons, consider helping to sponsor 20 kids to attend STEAM camp next summer. Your donation can be matched by your employer (if they do charitable matching) and is 100% tax-deductible, per the donation page.
Make Someone’s 2017 (or Beyond) Magical
Share if you plan to participate, comment in the section below, or let us know of other cool ways to give back to society using miles and points this Holiday!
