TigerFlight Foundation gave free airplane rides to nearly 20 children this weekend, including a group of students from Tritt Elementary School in Marietta. Teacher Phyllis Bryer heard about TigerFlight through activities funded by a Northwest Georgia Math-Science Partnership grant, which allowed TigerFlight Foundation to offer free flights to educators in a cooperative program with Georgia Highlands College, Kennesaw State University and Georgia Youth Science and Technology Centers.

Her fifth-graders read the organization’s book “Jake and the Tiger Flight” in class and came to Richard B. Russell Regional Airport in Rome to experience the tiger-striped planes for themselves. The book is about a boy who has a dream of learning to fly. “I read the book to my students and it had a lot of important messages,” said Bryer.

“It was awesome,” said Victoria Pondiscio, 11, of the book. “We wanted to read it every day.”

During the free orientation flights, TigerFlight pilots talk to the children about the airplanes and explain some of the sciences of flight. The activity supports the organization’s missions of leading the young to the dream of flight and teaching children to become Pilots in Command of their own lives.

“I thought it was awesome,” said Sophia Goldstein, 9.

“I wish I could do it again,” said Ethan Thomas, 11, who said the experience was more exciting than flying in a commercial jet. “You feel like you’re a bird that’s flying around.”

Kenslee Akridge, 10, is a student at Model Elementary School in Rome. He and his family happened upon the activity during an outing to look at the planes at the airport, and he was excited that he got to take a ride with pilot Blaine “Laredo” Cole.

“It was really, really, really, really, really fun,” he said. “If I could say it 1,000 times I would.”

TigerFlight offers free flights for children on the second Saturday of each month, weather permitting. For more information, contact info@tigerflightfoundation.org.