30 days until 5th Annual Ghana Paragliding Festival!
Easter weekend is just around the corner! Which means that many people have been working hard to get the final preparations in place for
the festival. Walter spent the week of February 14-20 in Ghana, meeting with the festival stakeholders and sponsors to make final arrangements for the festival and to smooth out the launch. During this week, he also made a presentation to a press conference attended by 200 government and media representatives, including chiefs from Kwahu, Ministers, the heads of companies like Ghana Airways, Ethiopian airways, Pepsi and many more. Furthermore, all of the national newspapers, radio stations, and TV channels were represented, as well as the BBC. The Minister of Tourism also gave an amazing address, pledging her support for this and future festivals, and volunteered to be the first tandem passenger to kick-off this year’s festival! Also, during the media outreach event, Walter flew a couple of tandem passeners as a precursor to build excitement within the local communities. Check out the included photos documenting the progress of the festival’s development.

Some attending tandem Pilots have also been working hard to promote
the humanitarian opportunities presented by the festival. Erlend Borge
Madsen and Frode Løtvedt (both from Norway) have teamed up with
X-plore, a Norwegian organization, to generate awareness of how youth can personally get involved in developmental causes in Africa. Check out their website at www.arcticacro.com. Erlend and Frode have also been communicating with a film crew to create a documentary about the festival, which will potentially air on t.v. stations in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Likewise, Chris Hunlow (United States) has poured his energy into creating a not-for-profit foundation called the Wing of Hope, seeking donations to sponsor as many flights as possible for underprivileged youth of Ghana. The mission statement of the foundation is to promote youth development by helping individuals to believe that they can achieve what was once thought of as impossible, by introducing them to one of man’s greatest achievements: flight.

These projects, as well as the festival, consume many hours of
free-time and require much monetary assistance. If you are able to
donate to any of these causes, please contact the involved pilots
through their websites, or through the organizers of the Ghana
Festival. Just $50 sponsors the chance for one more individual to
experience free flight.

Many thanks! Sabrina