By Rick Shideler
Spirit Airlines Commits $250K in Travel to Social Justice Organizations
Spirit Airlines, the Miramar, Florida based low-cost carrier, announced on Friday that it will commit $250,000 in airline travel to several organizations that are working to improve community relations, social justice and civil rights in the United States.
In a press release, the carrier announced it will make the travel credits available to nine public organizations across the country.
“At Spirit, we promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and strongly support the Black community, because Black lives matter,” said Laurie Villa, SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer at Spirit Airlines and President of The Spirit Airlines Charitable Foundation. “We are proud to partner with these great organizations and admire how tirelessly they work to advocate for social justice and civil rights.”
The nine organizations being supported by Spirit’s donation include:
The Urban League of Broward County (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
The Urban League of Detroit & Southeastern Michigan (Detroit, Mich.)
The Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce (Dallas, Texas)
The NAACP (Las Vegas, Nev.)
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (New York, N.Y.)
The Common Ground Foundation (Chicago, Ill.)
The African American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida (Orlando, Fla.)
The National Council of Negro Women (Washington, D.C.)
The National Black Chamber of Commerce (Washington, D.C.)
The Urban League of Broward County’s President & CEO, Dr. Germaine Smith-Baugh said “The Urban League of Broward County is incredibly grateful to be one of the organizations receiving this generous donation from Spirit Airlines. During these challenging and uncertain times, we applaud Spirit for stepping up to strengthen our longstanding efforts to advance racial equity and social justice in our community.”
The charitable gift announcement was met with mixed comments on Spirit’s social media pages. Comments supporting the decision praised Spirit’s focus on helping change thinking related to the causes it supports. But several commenters cited the narrow political focus Spirit employed in the organizations it has chosen to support.
The Spirit Airlines Charitable Foundation, a family-focused charitable initiative, has a long-standing partnership with a number of non-profit organizations including the YMCA and Jack and Jill Children’s Center which provide food to seniors and families struggling during this time. Additionally, Spirit worked with and supported organizations in the fabrication of face masks for healthcare workers.
Earlier this year, Spirit Airlines hosted a golf tournament and raised over $1 million dollars for the Foundation. Speaking to the golf tournament funds raised, Villa said, “We are extremely grateful to our partners from across our international network who generously rallied to offer their support for the Foundation this year, With this year’s donations, we look forward to stepping up our long-term commitments benefitting children & families, education, military veterans and the environment.”
Rick is a retired airline maintenance professional with over 40 years experience in commercial, corporate and military aviation sectors. Rick holds an FAA Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) and a FCC General RadioTelephone Licenses. Rick is a veteran of the United States Air Force and has served in multiple leadership positions including Director of Maintenance for a large corporate aviation firm, airline Director of Engineering and has chaired multiple aviation maintenance safety and reliability industry committees. Rick took his first airplane ride at six months old and became an airline geek shortly thereafter.
