By: Jailyn Mitchell

Terry Fitch, our prize winner, is an easy-going business owner who is passionate about his family and political beliefs. While he was nervous to experience learning how to fly, he was very devoted to helping out the Chaffey journalism students in this project. Fitch is very active in the community and has a deep appreciation for their hard work and dedication to their students. Some time ago, Terry Fitch himself used to fly in planes himself due to previous work. He flew quite extensively as his former work partner for cooperate America, up until he retired. Fitch claims to have flown hundreds of thousands of miles due to his previous job. However, because of his motion sickness, he was and still is not the biggest fan of flying. While Fitch himself wasn’t a student of Chaffey, he and his family live adjacent to one of their campuses. He is connected to Chaffey College due to his involvement in job fairs hosted by the school. He is amazed by the school’s stances on educating and great with their money. Because Mr. Fitch is in the financial business, he knows how well-organized Chaffey has been with their money and finances.

Terry Fitch is also a very big family man. He lives with his wife in Chino, California close to the Chino Chaffey Campus. He speaks highly of each one of his sons, one of whom is an up and coming influencer on the popular new app, TikTok. He boasts about the immense following his son has gathered over the last few months due to a segment he does on his account called “The Quarantine Games” where he shows his viewers little crafts, pranks, and fun ideas to do while safely in quarantine. He goes on to discuss his entrepreneurial wife who was in the midst of planning a book tour for her “12 Books 12 Months” series where she discusses a multitude of topics including life, business, career, and relationships. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, her tour had to be canceled, but they still have hopes to reboot it next year when it is safe. Fitch also mentions his son who is very passionate about his support of Donald Trump. He explained that, while his family are supporters of Trump, the most vocal of all is his youngest son. Fitch is very grateful for what Trump has done for business owners like himself and enjoy his personality. His son also likes to show his pride throughout his life, including stickers and flags in support of Trump. Another unfortunate event is that because Fitch’s business is benefits for employees, there has been a dramatic decline in the employees being able to use them. Fitch has his strong belief that God will get us through COVID-19 safely and will be back to normal.

On September 13th, Dubois Aviation gave my group of journalism students the opportunity to experience a private flight lesson in Chino, California. Lou Dubois, the owner of Dubois Aviation, was very knowledgeable and cleared my partner, Giselle, our prize winner, Terry, and I’s mind. While talking to Dubois, the knowledge he had of planes and aviation, in general, was comforting. Before getting into the airplane, Dubois explained his time of learning how to fly from his father at the young age of eight years old. Along with that came a great history lesson on the aviation center. After our flight experience, we all agreed on how experienced the pilot was. Fitch jokingly expressed his gratitude for the pilot not doing any flips or tricks while in the air. He also told us how shocked he was initially with the number of gadgets and gizmos that were in the airplane he got to fly. Because of Fitch’s love for learning new things, his favorite part was the entire experience of learning how to fly the plane smoothly. He highly recommends Dubois Aviation for anyone, young or older, to take their flight classes because of the amazing time he had working with them. Unfortunately, because of the fires that were ongoing in the area, the haze caused us to fly a bit lower than average, but it was still a gorgeous sight and an excellent experience. Fitch recalls the flight, saying that he can’t imagine how much more beautiful it would have been without the haze, however it was still a great view.

And We’re Off! The Breeze Takes Flight: Terry Fitch’s Story