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Rock Hill, SC – August 21, 2006 - You can’t just take in life. You have to give back.”
David Angel lives by that mantra.
The Rock Hill School District Three, in Rock Hill, South Carolina, recognized Angel, a Young Eagles pilot, for demonstrating “a commitment to excellence in our schools” and making a “significant contribution to public education.” He was one of three to receive the school district’s 2006 Outstanding Volunteer Award at a recognition luncheon on July 20.
For more than seven years, Angel has given elementary and middle school students a Young Eagles ride as a reward for reaching 100 points in an accelerated reading program meant to make the children better readers.
Originally, he started giving the rides to students in one school, after he met the school’s principal through church. He now gives flights to students in five schools.
Angel says he tries to take children for airplane rides at times other than regular Young Eagle flight rallies. That’s because he wants the ride to seem more of a reward for a student’s reading achievements.
School officials have told him the flights do make a difference in encouraging youth to read.
Angel, who has four children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren of his own, says he enjoys working with the youth, and enjoys hearing about how he’s had an impact.
Since he started flying Young Eagles in 1994, he has given 362 youth free rides. He explains how the airplane works before he takes them up, and enjoys their enthusiasm the most.
“A couple of weeks ago, I took up two kids and we flipped a coin to see who would get to fly with me,” Angel recalls. Once over, the youth who did get to fly in the front ran up to tell his father all about it, and tell him that he was going to be a pilot when he got older.
But for some, it is more than wishful thinking. Two of his Young Eagles are or will be missionary pilots, he says, and one earned his pilot license before he could fly a car.
Angel, who first earned his private pilot license in 1989 when he was 63, says he was surprised to get an award for doing something he really enjoys.
“But it did make me feel real good.”
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David Angel (center), Rock Hill, SC, and two of his more than 350 Young Eagles. David was recently honored for his work with a local school district.
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