MetroWines’ tasting to benefit A-B Tech aviation scholarship funds, Dec. 10

From MetroWines

Press release

Please join us on Thursday, December 10, from 5:30 to 7:30 to benefit AB Tech Aviation Scholarships.

$10 donation at the door but bring your checkbook to help! Consistent with our mission, we are tasting Flyover Red and Flyover White from The Foris Winery as well as Big Boss Hell’s Belle Beer.

Both The Brigadier General Carl L. Trippi Scholarship and The Corman Family Scholarship are raising funds to help aviation students get wings!

Why? Because, according to R. J. Corman, Dean of Business and Hospitality Education and Chairperson, Aviation Management and Career Pilot Technology, we NEED pilots:

Over 36,000 pilots will be needed to fill open positions between now and 2025 in the US; over 250,000 pilots are needed worldwide during the same timeframe. Although the degree program is priced as one of the lowest in the southeast, our students face a daunting task of obtaining over $40,000 just to obtain the needed FAA credentials to become employed as a pilot (Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, and Commercial Pilot license). With our current student population this amounts to over $1.3 million in needed funds for our students. The average graduate will only earn about $20,000 per year for their first two years of employment after graduation. They will only make on average $35,000 per year for another three years upon being employed as a regional airline pilot. Starting salary for a teacher in NC is $35,000 per year which my graduates won’t obtain until approximately 3 years after graduation and investing $40,000 each in their flight training.

Read all about the program, the scholarships, the wine and the beer here.

More from MetroWines co-owner Gina Trippi:

Dear Friends, This is personal…

My father, the son of an Italian immigrant family, left his home in Hammond, Louisiana, for New Orleans when he was 17 to find work, any work, anywhere, around airplanes. He wanted, with every fiber of his being, to be a pilot. And that he was.

Over his career, my father flew every kind of plane for every reason or, to be honest, no reason! But what I remember most are the hurricanes. It always seemed that they closed in on the Gulf of Mexico at night. I remember my mother and I trying to shore up the house because my father was running one mission after another to bring the men in from the oil rigs in the Gulf. And his was always the last plane, the last helicopter, still flying into the wind to the rescue.

In his short life, he accomplished much. But he didn’t have time to pass the torch.

The Brigadier General Carl L. Trippi Scholarship at A-B Tech Aviation Program honors his work and memory and seeks to help another would be pilot go the distance and serve the community, that is, to pass the torch to another pilot who plans to serve the community.

American needs pilots. We need pilots for everything from medical and disaster rescue to farming, transportation, and park service work.

According to RJ Corman, Chairperson, Aviation Management at A-B Tech, Over 36,000 pilots will be needed to fill open positions between now and 2025 in the US; over 250,000 pilots are needed worldwide during the same timeframe.

But pilot training is expensive. Please join us to help. And meet the first recipients of both The Brigadier General Carl L. Trippi Scholarship and Corman Family Scholarship.

Join us @MetroWines on Thursday, Dec. 10, from 5:30 to 7:30 to support these scholarships. We will be pouring Foris Winery Flyover Red and White, Hells Belle beer and light party food.

$10 at the door supports these scholarships. Please bring your checkbook.

Most sincerely, Gina Trippi