St. Louis

The next stop was in St. Louis where we showed the final product to our friends at Wings of Hope who helped us refurbish the Cessna 206. We also took the opportunity to do some maintenance on the plane and prepare for the rest of the tour. Special thanks to Wings of Hope for all they have done to help.

Kansas City

We started the tour in Olathe, Kansas where we have a good group of supporters. Gary graduated from the university in Olathe so it was a time to catch up with old friends and make new contacts. We would like to thank the Dickie family who play bluegrass music at Silver Dollar City for coming out to play for the reception. Dr. James Dickie is on Samaritan's Board of Directors. We'd also like to thank Air Associates for hosting the event and Ray and Andrea for setting everything up. We set a goal for the tour of having 200 people sign up for $20 support for month. We picked up our first eight supporters towards the goal at this stop.

Ray was a mentor to Gary during his time in school here in Olathe. It was during that time that Samaritan Aviation was founded. It was a treat to bring the "Spirit of Paradise" to Kansas and get a picture with Ray and his plane. And thank him for his support during the early days.

Oshkosh Part 3

Post-Oshkosh, we started the first leg of our national tour with the 206...keep checking our Blog or website for stopover cities & tour updates!

We enjoyed having Dr. Dan Cransten (our Field Medical Director) join us for a few days in Oshkosh.

Our Wonderful Host family - Bill & Linda, from Omro, Wisconsin.

We had the exciting opportunity to meet Shawn Tucker from Team Oracle at the air show. Left to right: Mark Palm, Jacob Carroll (SA Financial Director), Shawn Tucker, Ambassador Paki, & Gary Bustin.

Oshkosh Part 2

We recently had the 206 on display at this year's Air Venture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin where it generated quite a bit of interest. Ambassador Evan Paki, from Papua New Guinea, also visited the event and saw the "Spirit of Paradise" for the first time.

Oshkosh AirVenture 2008!

The "Spirit of Paradise" reaches its final destination on Lake Winnebago for the AirVenture. This is what it's like landing on water in a float plane!

Day 1 at Oshkosh: Check out our tent and our new t-shirts!

Exhbit Location: Take a tour of the beautiful Seaplane Base.

Landing Oshkosh

We have several pictures and short movie clips but can't upload them while we are here at Oshkosh. Check back in a few days to get caught up. It has been quite a week!