The Endeavor Awards
Flying Lady has been honored to be a part of Angel Flight West’s annual “The Endeavor Awards®” for the past several years!
Every year Angel Flight West coordinates thousands of donated flights that save lives, provide access to medical care, transport veterans, rescue animals, map environmental data, aid in disaster relief and contribute to the public good in communities nationwide. The Endeavor Awards® gala event celebrates and honors those volunteer pilots and provides charitable support to the organizations that contribute their gifts of flight to serve those in need
In 2022, the event was held at Los Angeles’ beautiful Exposition Park Rose Garden. Flying Lady wine was served as tastings during cocktail hour, and our Flagship Cabernet Sauvignon was served at the Gala’s dinner, aptly located under the hanging Space Shuttle endeavor in the California Science Center.
A special highlight of the event was the attendance of the ultimate adventurers, astronauts! Our team at Flying Lady was honored to have astronauts Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Nicole Marie Passonno Stott, and Steven Roy Swanson sign our wine bottles. We keep them as treasured emblems of these phenomenal Flying Lady ambassadors of adventure!
Background on the astronauts who attended in 2022
Dorothy (Dottie) Metcalf-Lindenburger served as a Mission Specialist on STS-131, the 2010 Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Formerly a High School teacher, she has a passion for science education, especially Geology and entomology. A classroom question led her to the NASA website and their program for teachers to become astronauts.
In 2012, NASA announced that Metcalf-Lindenburger would command the NEEMO 16 undersea exploration mission aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory. On July 20, 2009, Metcalf-Lindenburger sang the National Anthem at the Houston Astros game against the St. Louis Cardinals in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. She has been a long-time lead singer with the all-astronaut rock band, “Max Q“. Metcalf-Lindenburger retired from NASA in 2014, to live and work in the Seattle area.
Nicole Marie Passonno Stott is an astronaut, aquanaut, artist, mom, and now author of her first book Back to Earth ~ What Life In Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet – And Our Mission To Protect It. She is a veteran NASA Astronaut with two spaceflights and 104 days on both the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle. Personal highlights of her time in space include performing a spacewalk (10th woman to do so), flying the robotic arm to capture the first free-flying HTV, and being the first person to paint with watercolor in space (now on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum).
On October 21, 2009, Stott and her Expedition 21 crewmate Jeff Williams participated in the first NASA Tweetup from the Space Station with members of the public gathered at NASA Headquarters. This involved the first live Twitter connection for the astronauts. Nicole is a co-founder of the Space for Art Foundation – uniting a planetary community of children through the awe and wonder of space exploration and the healing power of art.
Steven Roy Swanson is a former NASA astronaut, engineer, and Commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Over his remarkable 28-year career with the agency, Mr. Swanson has been an innovator in advancing spaceflight technologies, and has flown two shuttle flights, STS-117 and STS-119, and one Soyuz flight, TMA-12M. All of the flights were to the International Space Station. He has logged over 195 days in space and completed five spacewalks totaling 28 hours and 5 minutes. Swanson has served in other roles at NASA, such as a CAPCOM for both International Space Station and Space Shuttle missions. His awards and honors include the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and the JSC Certificate of Accommodation.
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