News Blog

Benjamin Jordan is attempting a 10,000km paragliding flight across the entire country of Canada.  Along this flight Ben and crew will stop at numerous youth camps giving presentations on flight and encouraging kids to pursue their own dreams.  BWB is sponsoring Benjamin in this amazing quest. And read below to hear how the trip is going so far.

By Jess Ahlemeier

Nearly one month since our campaign launch in Tofino on Vancouver Island, we have – at the very least – invested ourselves in the following:

flown over the Georgia Strait – Ben becoming the first paraglider to do so!

careened around mountain and valley passes, collected hand prints of youth in two provinces (so far).

We have tried to adopt several animals belonging to the generous families who have invited us into their households. We have discussed wind strength with the weather, laid our paraglider wing atop and alongside cow patties, created a comfortable living space within our bus ‘honey’ and routed a visit to her auction dealer home.

We’ve been spooked by leaking propane, waited out snow days in June and launched from a field with the same white covering.

We built a heart, an apple, stars, acronyms, a smiley face, and a whale out of kids on the ground and found joy in the smiles and energy of people excited to hear about and be a part of our project.

To date we have presented and launched from seven schools or camps and are currently headed toward Medicine Hat, Alberta. with thousands of kilometers remaining to our east, we have a summer’s worth of flying ahead of us. Check out some photos of Western Canada’s beautiful landscape and people on our website at http://aboveandbeyondcanada.com/cgi-bin/list?type=gallery.

Have a swell rest-of-June and keep an eye to sky.

~jess ahlemeier

Help BWB keep inspiration alive through supporting folks like Jess!  Click here to donate.