Living The Dream

Greg Poe is a professional airshow pilot, having flown over 100 types of aircraft and accumulating thousands of hours as a performer and test pilot. In addition to his flying, Greg has another, very personal cause that he uses his airshow visibility to promote. Elevate Your Life, the motivational action arm of the Ryan J. Poe Foundation, is a vision that Greg began pursuing after losing his teenage son to heroin addiction.
 

An accomplished speaker, Greg travels to schools and youth organizations all over the U.S., making a dynamic multimedia presentation of his aerial exploits and showing his example of how a country boy from Idaho has reached the sky and beyond through hard work and dedication to a dream. While his pilot's career is the stuff of dreams, it is his inspiring stories outside of the cockpit that make Greg’s presentation a life changing event for children, teenagers, parents and educators.

Setting The Goal

Our goal in 2010 is to present to over 10,000 students while on the airshow circuit.

Greg gives children of all ages the encouragement to dream, not daydream, but to go after life with energy and sincerity. He gives them something to take away… smiles, laughter, hope, some of life’s stark realities and a lot of encouragement. He inspires his audiences to find something they love, to allow themselves to dream, to set goals, open up their hearts and to reach for the sky. Greg takes his Elevate Your Life program with him as he travels to over 20 air shows each year across the country. It is a wonderfully synergetic program for young people, teachers, and parents.

Gaining The Prize

At school events, an essay contest is held in the weeks prior to each presentation, and winners for the best "Elevate Your Life" essays are selected to go for the ride of a lifetime with Greg in his MX2 showplane. An annual winner will be selected each year for a special reward at the end of each airshow season.

As a college student, Greg excelled in public speaking, winning a state speaking contest and placing second in a national speech contest. In addition to the Elevate Your Life program, he speaks regularly at aviation conferences, businesses and non-profit organizations.

"I wanted to take a moment to thank you for the very motivating and inspiring Elevate Your Life presentation you performed at Seven Springs Middle School! Our students enjoyed your enthusiasm and spark for setting your goals and achieving them. You are doing great things for our youth through the Ryan Poe Foundation AND our planet, as I later learned about your ethanol usage on the website. Thanks for being such a positive role model and example of hard work and dedication to our students!!" 

- Dora Martin, Seven Springs Middle School, Tampa, FL