Pilot Club of Gonzales receives international recognition

The Pilot Club of Gonzales continues to show growth within the community, so they have received international recognition for their efforts.

The club received the Outstanding Growth Award from Pilot Club International Saturday, July 1 at their convention in Bellevue, Wash. 

Linda Vaclavik, the president of Pilot Club of Gonzales, said the club grew 93 percent from last year and had more growth than any other Pilot Club nationwide. 

Vaclavik credits the club’s growth to the new young members that have joined. 

“We started getting some younger members in the club from the Gonzales community. And they in turn, either worked or knew other people that would have liked to be a member of Pilot. And they brought them to the meetings as guests, and they decided to join us,” Vaclavik said. 

Most of the new members are in their 20s and 30s, Vaclavik added. 

The Pilot Club of Gonzales has been showing its presence in the community, including being part of the community school supply drive headed up by the Edwards Association. 

“It’s vitally important to have our people out there, the Pilots out there, wearing our shirts and name badges so that we get the recognition that we are involved with many things in the community,” Vaclavik said. 

The Pilot Club of Gonzales was founded in 1973 and recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of the founding of the club. 

The mission of the Pilot Club is to improve life in the community with friendship and service. 

“Our focus is to bring awareness and support for those with brain-related disorders and traumatic brain injuries,” Vaclavik said. “So we have a presence in the schools with working with the special education departments and special needs as well as we’re a major supporter of the Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Association.” 

Vaclavik said the Pilot Club of Gonzales will continue to be a presence within Gonzales by word of mouth. 

Their presence on social media has helped the club growth, Vaclavik added, and posting pictures of them serving community will help get more people to join. 

“We’re going to continue with that with talking it up to everyone [on social media]. And we're ready for this year. We've got three new members in July, so we're off to a good start again,” Vaclavik said.