Photo: Leading Edge Aviation Foundation directors presenting appreciation certificate (from left, back row) Gerald Gaige, Tim Phelps, Kevin Crawford, Rowdy Kelley (treasurer), Bill Nazarenko, (front row) Steve Johnson (LEAF president) and Trey Ressler, Big Air LLC.
The Leading Edge Aviation Foundation (LEAF) directors have returned to its donor the first dollar received for the organization’s mission.
Six years ago, upon being told of the founding of the Baxter County non-profit entity LEAF that provides financial assistance to people interested in aviation, Trey Ressler immediately dug deep in his jeans and handed the organization’s president Steve Johnson a $1 bill as the very first donation.
At the time, Ressler was the operations manager of Big Air LLC, the aviation services provider at the Baxter County Airport, owned by local businessman Al Beers.
Ressler is vice president of Beers Investments Group, owned by Beers and his wife, Kelly. The group includes Big Air (with aviation services also at Kearney Regional Airport in Nebraska), a nationwide freight hauling company (Karr Transportation), Buncles Brick Oven and Brews and multiple other businesses.
Since that first dollar gift by Ressler, the foundation has received donated airplanes, aircraft parts, model airplane collections and other marketable items in addition to cash.
Items donated are sold to raise funds to support scholarships and low cost flight training for area individuals who might otherwise be excluded from aviation.
The most recent scholarship went to Mountain Home High School Navy JROTC cadet Johnathon Mason to attend the National Flight Academy this summer.
The Leading Edge Aviation Foundation flight operations from Baxter County Airport, supported by those funds over the last six years, has successfully provided flights for more than 30 learner pilots, many reaching solo status and several earning their private pilot certificate and more advanced ratings.
Ressler says “a person begins flight training with instruction and practice, and then continues to learn all their life.”
LEAF also operates an aviation learning center in the north wing of the Baxter County Airport terminal building that contains an FAA fully certified flight simulator, an extensive aviation library and space to host periodic aviation ground school sessions covering all the knowledge needed to pass pilot written exams.
To receive a receipt for your tax deductible contribution, mail a check for the Leading Edge Aviation Foundation to: Steve Johnson, 607 County Road 11, Mountain Home AR 72653, or call Gerald Gaige at 870-656-6005. To speak directly to a flight instructor, call Kevin Crawford 870-421-3443.
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