Eagle's Wings Flight School (EWFS) founders Josh and Ashleigh Cordery attended the Manitoba Aerospace All-Stars Awards of Excellence on November 23 in Winnipeg to accept the 2023 Award of Excellence for Training. The couple started the flight school in the summer of 2020 to make a difference in at least one young person's life by allowing them to learn to fly and be a part of the aviation community. Since then, they have done much more than their initial goal: teaching seven students to fly each summer for the last four summers. "To be recognized within the aviation field itself amongst the major aerospace players in Manitoba, that's a special honour for sure," says Josh. Ashleigh notes that this has only been made possible by the support from Southport Aerospace and the dozen volunteers who give their time each summer. "It's just a really great honour and privilege to recognize our team of volunteers as well with this award; we certainly couldn't do it just the two of us," she continues. "Southport is our home away from home for most of the spring and summer. They hangar our airplane there, and our students get to fly out of this world-class elite, extraordinary airport with excellent facilities. We're just so fortunate to have a great partnership with them and have since day one." Both Corderys agreed that getting to know the students while growing alongside them, as they take on the challenge of learning to fly an airplane, is one of the more rewarding aspects of flight school. Looking to the near future, EWFS will start a new project where, in the new year, they recruit a couple of local students to help them assemble an airplane. "It's like build-a-bear, but on a much bigger scale, and you don't find it in a mall," laughed Josh. "We're not sure when it will be done, but the journey, the experience, growing and learning together is what we're looking for and excited about with this project." The latest installment of the summer flight program took place July 14 - 24, 2023. In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, PortageOnline encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the PortageOnline app.