Send Us Your "Prairie Pilots' Stories"

In 2008, we released the book Prairie Pilot: Lady Luck Was On My Side – The Stories of Walter D. Williams, which contains 100 entertaining, inspiring, short stories written by the late Walter Williams of Kerrobert, Saskatchewan. Walter was an International Harvester dealer and a welder in the late 1940s and 1950s when he began using his two-seater Aeronca Chief airplane as a flying taxi service and unofficial air ambulance for many residents in his area.

This photo shows Walter Williams of Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, flying his beloved CF-EVO Aeronca Chief in the 1950s. The photo was taken from CF-DRY Piper Cub, owned by Norm Easton of Eston, Sask. 

Walter Williams flew pregnant women, doctors, RCMP officers, criminals, teachers, books, corpses, and friends to hospitals and other destinations – often in horrible weather or at night when he wasn’t supposed to be flying. Walter’s stories tell of him flying into storms and fog, landing in farmers’ fields, hunting coyotes from the air, and saving people’s lives by being the only available mode of transportation at the time. He had little regard for the rules of Transport Canada and often ignored common sense, thanking Lady Luck many times for helping him through risky situations.

Walter's CF-EVO struck a fence near Altario, SK on a failed takeoff in Fall 1948.

A snowplow clearing a road near Kerrobert, SK in the 1950s.

The late Walter Williams with his son David, standing by Walter's plane, about 1950.

Walter and Romona Williams, about 1975.

The Prairie Pilot book has been popular and went into a second printing in 2012. Men especially love this book - I tease them that they live vicariously through Walter’s crazier adventures - but it is a great read for men and women and anyone over age 12. Walter was definitely an unsung hero for that region of west-central Saskatchewan and east-central Alberta in the 1950s. He saved many lives and his short stories are proof of his heroism.

Since that book was published, for the last seven years, my husband/publishing partner Al Driver and I have enjoyed listening to the stories of other Prairie pilots. They have inevitably come back to us after reading Walter’s book to tell us about some of their own precarious flights and marvellous flying adventures. So we have decided to compile some of these stories into a new book that we hope to release in 2016.

Thus, if you are a Prairie pilot, or a Canadian pilot, or you know someone who is and has a story or two to tell, DriverWorks Ink invites you to share those short stories (or poems) for this non-fiction book tentatively titled Stories of Prairie Pilots.

We know that there are some incredible stories of flying danger, heroism, helping, joy, adventure, silliness, and more out there. We want to record and share these stories with our readers.

Please write your story or invite someone you know to share their story with us. Stories should be from 500 words to 1,500 words. Photos may be submitted upon acceptance of your story. Please provide details including your name, address, phone number, and email address, as well as the names, dates, location and other details of the people and places in your story.

It would be best to ask the permission of the people you are naming in your story before you send us the story, but it is most important that the story be true and not libellous. You can get around using real names by using phrases such as "a man I'll call Jim" or "a man I know." I'll help you with that process once we accept your story for publication in our book.

Please send your submissions before January 31, 2016, by email to: ddriver@sasktel.net or by mail to: DriverWorks Ink, 110 McCarthy Blvd. N., Regina, SK S4R 6A4.

Please phone DriverWorks Ink at 306-545-5293 if you have a story to share but you do not wish to write it yourself. I will be happy to do the writing and help you share your story in that way.

Please note that all submissions will be accepted but not all submissions will be published. Those whose stories are published will receive two complimentary copies of the book and will be able to purchase more copies at a 40% discount.

We may decide to make a donation from the book proceeds to a worthwhile charity, but we have not yet discussed that concept for this project.

Thank you in advance. We look forward to receiving your stories.

Happy Flying and Happy Writing!

Eight-Time Cancer Survivor’s Beauty Gives Back

Inspiring eight-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada is the face of a new campaign of Look Good ... Feel Better Canada called ‘Beauty Gives Back’. And we could not be more pleased or proud to call her our friend.

Dionne’s story is one of overcoming the odds, beating cancers of the breast, then brain, and then two bouts of liver cancer before spending seven years volunteering at the Allan Blair Cancer Clinic in Regina. During that time, she helped hundreds of patients through their treatments by sharing her positive, never-give-up attitude, and encouraging them to continue to fight this disease.

In December 2009, Dionne was diagnosed with Stage IV cancers in her liver, lungs and bones. She began dressing up in costume each week for her chemotherapy treatments and before long, she and her husband – her wingman – Graham, began to both dress in costume and dance into chemo as music played to accompany their themes.

Dionne Warner’s first costume/theme, Dec. 2009

I met Dionne and Graham in June 2010 and knew instantly that both of them were worthy of a book. It would be an inspiring book about this amazing couple and their never-ending, positive attitudes that showed their commitment to doing all they could to beat this disease and bring hope and laughter to others in the process.

  

  

Buy the Book

I promised Dionne and Graham at our first meeting that I would write their story and publish a book about them and their journey by the following June – which I did. The result is Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner’s Story of Hope.

The book has become a national best-seller in Canada, with copies also being purchased by readers in numerous countries around the world. It’s also in an e-book format, available from your favourite e-book retailer. Never Leave Your Wingman won an Honorable Mention in the Biography category of the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival in Chicago, and continues to sell well and spread the Warners’ story of hope with all who read it. We repeatedly hear stories of how the book has helped cancer patients and their families, and many readers who have no connection to cancer, live happier, healthier lives by focusing on the positive and taking control of their own health.

Dionne has been a fan and supporter of the Look Good ... Feel Better campaign since shortly after she beat her second cancer. Here’s an excerpt from the Never Leave Your Wingman book:

In October 1997, a little more than a month after her second brain cancer surgery, Dionne attended a half-day workshop with the Look Good … Feel Better program, an initiative of the cosmetic, toiletry and fragrance association to help cancer patients feel better about themselves. She was also interviewed and photographed for a story in the Summer 1998 issue of Images Magazine, which was available through the Shoppers Drug Mart stores. In the photos, the beautiful bald-headed Dionne showed how to wear hats and scarves to feel more comfortable as a woman undergoing cancer therapy. Her husband was beside her in one of the photos and the headline read: ‘The Power of love – Dionne faced cancer twice in two years and beat it both times’. 

Dionne spoke about her struggle to feel attractive after her initial hair loss with the breast cancer chemotherapy and how she gave up all attempts to try to improve her appearance. “I felt so unattractive. I thought, ‘Why bother with makeup?’ So, if I had to go out, I’d just put on a hat and that was about it.’ The support and love from her husband, family and friends helped her to overcome her own insecurities as she healed from her surgeries, she said in the article. “Dionne decided to attend a Look Good…Feel Better workshop because she knew she needed something to make herself feel better. And, in October 1997, actually on the day before she was photographed for the Look Good…Feel Better magazine, she went,” said the magazine article.

“At the workshop, I put on one of my hats because my head was cold, and everyone commented on it! It’s a real thrill that I was asked to be the hat model for the magazine, because I’m a hat collector – I have about 30 different types of hats,” she says. “I feel so much better about myself; the workshop really made a difference to me.” 

Dionne had learned about the Look Good … Feel Better program through the cancer clinic. In the article, she encouraged all other cancer patients to attend a workshop, use the products in the gift box provided for participants, and start feeling better about themselves. “Thanks to Look Good … Feel Better, my skin is incredible, I feel great and everyone tells me I look good, too. It’s a wonderful program, and I know that anyone who participates will feel the same way!”

Dionne has supported the program since then and credits it for helping her to maintain a positive attitude while she goes through her cancer treatments.

In November 2014, Dionne was called upon again by her friends in the Look Good ... Feel Better program to share her story in a huge, inspiring way – through their new Beauty Gives Back campaign.

Once you’ve recovered from watching the inspiring video above, we invite you to view the City TV Toronto news clip of the launch of the campaign at the 2014 Mirror Ball charity fundraiser in Toronto, Ontario. 

We’re sure you will agree that Dionne Warner is an amazing, inspiring, walking miracle.