CurePSP/Pilot Certification Fund
Donation protected
My name is Jonathan Clinton and my partner is Tommy Garrison. We met in Houston, TX where I had lived for 38 years. Tommy moved there in 2008 to work for J.P. Morgan Chase in the global bond market after being laid off by UBS during the 2007 sub-prime crash. Due to the economy that followed, by 2010 I had to find work outside my 17 year career in corporate/freelance video production. Luck, good or otherwise seems to run together sometimes and six months after we met in March 2014 Tommy was laid off again due to the European sovereign-debt crisis. His termination date...9/11. You would think they could have made it a day later.
Losing your job is typically bad news. However, in July 2014 we spent a week of vacation in Hendersonville, NC so Tommy could meet my parents Dick and Polly Clinton.
Mom, dad and Tommy got along even better than I knew they would and I wasn't surprised that the day before we left to go back to Houston Tommy joked "Why don't we quit our jobs and move to Asheville." Well, as fate or whatever would have it, on Tommy's first day back to work he was told that he was being laid off. He then called me to cheerfully announce, “Hey, I got laid off! Start packing, we are moving to North Carolina!”
We made our move to Asheville in late October. Unfortunately, bad luck had come upon our family and friends in a terrible way. In early August my mother began to show signs of what her doctor thought were mini strokes. Her symptoms continued to get worse. It took nearly five months and two neurologists to diagnose she had Progressive Supranuclear Palsy or PSP, a rare degenerative brain disease that has no known cause, treatment or cure. My father had severe scoliosis and had been legally blind for years so my mother's sudden turn of health hit them hard. Fortunately, we were now there to help them help them in any way we could. Of course luck, good or bad, seems woefully inadequate to characterize life's turns of events. Yet there is a time for everything, and we have no knowledge and little influence over the exact time when the significant events of life will occur. And the truth is for most of us the events of our lives are by and large positive and for that we should be grateful. I got the chance to reconnect with my mom and dad in a way I haven't know for many years. Tommy and I had the opportunity to become an intimate part of my parent's lives from the time we moved to Asheville. They accepted Tommy into their lives not only as my partner but came to love him like a son. Their acceptance and love was and is transforming.
We had to move my parents into an assisted living arrangement when the PSP caused mom to require more care than we could provide. Perhaps it was the strain of moving and my mother's illness that weakened my father. Precipitated by an opportunistic infection, the most wonderful man I have ever known and had the great fortune to have as a father, passed away on September 1st, 2015. With the loss of a her high school sweetheart, best friend and husband of 63 years, mom's will to fight the disease was gone. The most amazing woman I've ever known and had the great fortune to have as a mother passed away barely two months later on November 6.
Because neither Tommy nor I wanted to work in another corporate job and we also wanted more time to care for mom and dad, we decided to take some risks and started our own business producing aerial videography and photography using cameras mounted to unmanned aerial systems (UAS), more popularly known as drones. We named the company Kestrel Aerial Video.
The risk was higher because we used a good portion of our savings to finance the business. But we had confidence in the strength and promise of drone technology, our ability to successfully run a small business and the skills to do what we do best. We didn't however fully anticipate or predict the popular reaction to drones and UAS technology. To be clear, Kestrel Aerial Video fully endorses the FAA and their efforts to develop regulations for those operating UAS commercially. The safety of our national airspace and the public on the ground is a tenet of our company. The media attention focused on drones as a result of a series of unfortunate events contributed to the delay of the FAA meeting a major September 2015 deadline. We counted on this because the new regulations would have, and eventually will, replace the requirement for the operator of a UAV to hold a private pilot license with the more reasonable requirement of passing a written and a practical test to ensure safe UAS operations. This forced us to put a hold on our business operations. We couldn't wait on the FAA to finalize regulations now said to be in the third quarter of 2016. Tommy has enrolled in the ground portion of flight school but we need help paying for the flight hours required so we can keep Kestrel Aerial Video from being grounded permanently.
We continue to fly our practice flight schedule to keep our skills at the level our clients have come to expect and they are eager for us to be able to fly for them. We have established a reputation for creative and effective work. We will provide our service as practice flights on a case by case basis. You can find out more about us, including the status of our Section 333 exemption and the progress of Tommy's pilot certification on our
website www.kavwnc.com
We are asking for your help for two things. One, to largely fund the $6,250 starting cost for the private pilot course at Western North Carolina Aviation. The second is to raise awareness of PSP by providing monetary assistance to CurePSP, the leading nonprofit advocacy organization focused on understanding and eventually finding a cure for the disease. To that end, half of each donation will be given to CurePSP in the donor's name.
Donations of any amount will be graciously accepted. For those who donate $100.00 or more will receive a Kestrel Aerial Video T-shirt along with CurePSP merchandise that will help raise awareness of this insidious disease. In addition, if you happen to live in the vicinity of western North Carolina, along with the T-shirt we will extend a 50% discount for our aerial video/photography services to those who donate $500 or more.
For your generous and kind donations you will also have our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation.
Losing your job is typically bad news. However, in July 2014 we spent a week of vacation in Hendersonville, NC so Tommy could meet my parents Dick and Polly Clinton.
Mom, dad and Tommy got along even better than I knew they would and I wasn't surprised that the day before we left to go back to Houston Tommy joked "Why don't we quit our jobs and move to Asheville." Well, as fate or whatever would have it, on Tommy's first day back to work he was told that he was being laid off. He then called me to cheerfully announce, “Hey, I got laid off! Start packing, we are moving to North Carolina!”
We made our move to Asheville in late October. Unfortunately, bad luck had come upon our family and friends in a terrible way. In early August my mother began to show signs of what her doctor thought were mini strokes. Her symptoms continued to get worse. It took nearly five months and two neurologists to diagnose she had Progressive Supranuclear Palsy or PSP, a rare degenerative brain disease that has no known cause, treatment or cure. My father had severe scoliosis and had been legally blind for years so my mother's sudden turn of health hit them hard. Fortunately, we were now there to help them help them in any way we could. Of course luck, good or bad, seems woefully inadequate to characterize life's turns of events. Yet there is a time for everything, and we have no knowledge and little influence over the exact time when the significant events of life will occur. And the truth is for most of us the events of our lives are by and large positive and for that we should be grateful. I got the chance to reconnect with my mom and dad in a way I haven't know for many years. Tommy and I had the opportunity to become an intimate part of my parent's lives from the time we moved to Asheville. They accepted Tommy into their lives not only as my partner but came to love him like a son. Their acceptance and love was and is transforming.
We had to move my parents into an assisted living arrangement when the PSP caused mom to require more care than we could provide. Perhaps it was the strain of moving and my mother's illness that weakened my father. Precipitated by an opportunistic infection, the most wonderful man I have ever known and had the great fortune to have as a father, passed away on September 1st, 2015. With the loss of a her high school sweetheart, best friend and husband of 63 years, mom's will to fight the disease was gone. The most amazing woman I've ever known and had the great fortune to have as a mother passed away barely two months later on November 6.
Because neither Tommy nor I wanted to work in another corporate job and we also wanted more time to care for mom and dad, we decided to take some risks and started our own business producing aerial videography and photography using cameras mounted to unmanned aerial systems (UAS), more popularly known as drones. We named the company Kestrel Aerial Video.
The risk was higher because we used a good portion of our savings to finance the business. But we had confidence in the strength and promise of drone technology, our ability to successfully run a small business and the skills to do what we do best. We didn't however fully anticipate or predict the popular reaction to drones and UAS technology. To be clear, Kestrel Aerial Video fully endorses the FAA and their efforts to develop regulations for those operating UAS commercially. The safety of our national airspace and the public on the ground is a tenet of our company. The media attention focused on drones as a result of a series of unfortunate events contributed to the delay of the FAA meeting a major September 2015 deadline. We counted on this because the new regulations would have, and eventually will, replace the requirement for the operator of a UAV to hold a private pilot license with the more reasonable requirement of passing a written and a practical test to ensure safe UAS operations. This forced us to put a hold on our business operations. We couldn't wait on the FAA to finalize regulations now said to be in the third quarter of 2016. Tommy has enrolled in the ground portion of flight school but we need help paying for the flight hours required so we can keep Kestrel Aerial Video from being grounded permanently.
We continue to fly our practice flight schedule to keep our skills at the level our clients have come to expect and they are eager for us to be able to fly for them. We have established a reputation for creative and effective work. We will provide our service as practice flights on a case by case basis. You can find out more about us, including the status of our Section 333 exemption and the progress of Tommy's pilot certification on our
website www.kavwnc.com
We are asking for your help for two things. One, to largely fund the $6,250 starting cost for the private pilot course at Western North Carolina Aviation. The second is to raise awareness of PSP by providing monetary assistance to CurePSP, the leading nonprofit advocacy organization focused on understanding and eventually finding a cure for the disease. To that end, half of each donation will be given to CurePSP in the donor's name.
Donations of any amount will be graciously accepted. For those who donate $100.00 or more will receive a Kestrel Aerial Video T-shirt along with CurePSP merchandise that will help raise awareness of this insidious disease. In addition, if you happen to live in the vicinity of western North Carolina, along with the T-shirt we will extend a 50% discount for our aerial video/photography services to those who donate $500 or more.
For your generous and kind donations you will also have our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation.
Organizer
Jonathan Clinton
Organizer
Candler, NC
