Whirly-Girls Endowment

Texas Woman's University and the Whirly-Girls

Working together to preserve our history


In February 2012, the Board of Directors of the Whirly-Girls Scholarship Fund, Inc., (WGSF) voted to enter into a formal agreement with Texas Woman’s University (TWU) to establish an endowment fund for the purpose of providing an ongoing income stream to support in perpetuity the Whirly-Girls historical archives housed in the TWU Library in Denton, Texas.

Earnings from the $10,000 fund are used to preserve and promote the Whirly-Girls archives at the discretion of the Coordinator for Special Collections. Quoting from the agreement, “Expenditures for the fund may include, but are not limited to, digital preservation of material, oral histories, online distribution of appropriate material, and the creation of traveling exhibits.”

Why it is important to establish a formal endowment fund to care for our Whirly-Girls archives? Because there is no other organization like the Whirly-Girls. Our members come from all over the world, and each Whirly-Girl has a unique story to tell. Preserving and housing our unique corporate history and individual member accomplishments contribute significantly to the subject of aviation history. The Woman’s Collection at TWU where our archive is housed is contacted regularly by historians, researchers, journalists, writers, and other professionals with a need for information about women in helicopter aviation.

In 2001, then President Deborah Sawyer, WG #388, signed the original agreement with TWU to archive our historical documents and memorabilia. Since then, our archive has grown significantly with donations of personal papers, photographs, clothing items, and books by individual Whirly-Girls and by magazine articles, press releases, or commemorative items sent to TWU by the Whirly-Girls Historian. Families of deceased Whirly-Girls have also sent a significant amount of historical documents and memorabilia to our Whirly-Girls archives for preservation.

The TWU Woman’s Collection also is the repository for all documents and memorabilia belonging to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Several of our early Whirly-Girls were also WASPs, so it is convenient to have both organizations’ archives in the same physical location. Additionally, the TWU Woman’s Collection hopes to attract even more archival materials from other women in aviation in the future.

Would you like to donate to our endowment for the preservation of our history? Please use our donation page. Any such a donation is fully tax deductible. You may also send a donation by check to the following:

Treasurer
Whirly-Girls International
Post Office Box 356
Saluda, NC 28773

The check should be made out to WGSF, Inc., with the notation “TWU.”