{"id":37677,"date":"2026-02-26T16:21:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37677"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:21:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:21:45","slug":"scholarship-announced-in-memory-of-savanna-may-royes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/scholarship-announced-in-memory-of-savanna-may-royes\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholarship announced in memory of Savanna May Royes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The family of Savanna May Royes, a 20-year-old Aurora resident who lost her life last year while training for her private pilot\u2019s license, has established a memorial scholarship in her honour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim and Loraine Royes have come together with the Urban Pilots Network (UPN) to establish the Savanna May Royes Flight Safety Scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set to launch later this year, the annual scholarship will support young women of colour within the UPN with expenses related to their training, including costs to attend safety conferences, \u201cempowering them to grow, learn, and pursue their aviation dreams safely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSavanna\u2019s passing deeply affected the Aurora community and surrounding areas with more than 800 people having attended her celebration of life,\u201d said the Royes family in a statement. \u201cA common theme among the speakers in attendance, including six of her Northern Lights Public School teachers, was Savanna\u2019s kindness, thoughtfulness, generosity, and the bright spirit she brought to everyone around her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A GoFundMe page was established by the family shortly after Savanna lost her life in the July 8, 2025 midair accident in Steinbach, MB, with the expressed purpose of funding a scholarship in their daughter\u2019s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter a month of searching for the right home for her scholarship, we knew it belonged with UPN, whose mission reflects everything Savanna believed in,\u201d said Tim in a statement. \u201cThanks to the generosity of so many people, more than $42,000 was raised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPN\u2019s mission, says the family, is to \u201cuplift minority youths by reaching directly into communities and schools, encouraging young people to pursue careers in aviation. The group also collaborates with Black ESTEEM in running The Black Girl Boss Academy, an aviation-themed summer program that empowers young Black girls by helping them gain the skills and confidence to imagine themselves in fields where they are still under-represented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are deeply honoured to join the Royes family in establishing this significant scholarship,\u201d said UPN Vice President Coneil Campbell. \u201cIt is with profound respect that we support this initiative, which so closely reflects our organization\u2019s enduring commitment to advancing inclusion within the aviation industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmid their time of loss, the Royes family has chosen to transform their grief into a meaningful act of service, one that will create new opportunities for women like Savanna and inspire lasting change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The family of Savanna May Royes, a 20-year-old Aurora resident who lost her life last year while training for her private pilot\u2019s license, has established a memorial scholarship in her honour. Tim and Loraine Royes have come together with the Urban Pilots Network (UPN) to establish the Savanna May Royes Flight Safety Scholarship. Set to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9NH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 21:30:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37678,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37677\/revisions\/37678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}