Riverside Secondary teacher, Mrs. Teena Della, earned a $1700.00 grant from the Ninety-Nines women’s aviation Club. The grant will be used for the flying club that she founded at Della will take the club members for a ride in her plane.
The Ninety-nines is an international organization started by 99 woman in 1929 and Amelia Earhart, the first woman who tried to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. She was one of those 99 and the first president of the group, but to be in the Ninety-Nines you must be a female pilot. “The Ninety-N
ines women’s aviation is an award, but more like a scholarship,” said Della. The Ninety-Nines asked people that are part of the Ninety-Nines to apply if anyone was doing anything to promote aviation in an educational kind of way, so Della thought because she is the club founder of the flying club it would be a good thing to apply for. “The point of the Ninety-Nines is to encourage woman pilots and to make them feel more empowered,” said Della talking about the importance of the club.
Della got involved through her flight instructor’s friend who was in the club at the time. “She really encouraged me to join since there’s a lot of scholarships and awards that can progress your career if you wanted to be a pilot,” said Della. She started after she went to the Christmas party they had that year and all the ladies there were very nice and encouraging. Later on Della eventually became the secretary of the local chapter for British Columbia, which means Della would collect the minutes of meetings and also help organize an event called ‘the Poco Run’ that gives out scholarships.
Della got the grant by applying, but she has yet to receive the money. After they send it, the money goes through the district then the school and finally into the flying club’s account for her to spend on things that could benefit the club. Funds will go to subsidize the cost of field trips such as the one she did with students King Wang, Gary Zau, Enoch Shim, Allen Ni, Michael Koutchega, Farzan Masoodi, and Matias Bene on Friday October 23. Della is also getting a plaque for her accomplishment of winning the award. The Friday flight was a success and members of the flying club got to see quite a nice view of Vancouver, Pitt Lake and the local mountains in Della’s Piper Comanche 1958 plane. “It was really good; I had a fun and interesting experience and I even got to fly the plane for a bit,” said student and club member, Enoch Shim.
