Project 19 – 1 Year to go!
Nothing worth having comes easy.
Project 19’s mission is to encourage women worldwide to dream big and live a brave life. Our original mission was to build a 100-way Women’s Vertical World Record on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the US constitution. Like all things worthwhile, the journey has not been an easy one! However, we are pushing forward with new goals and we are excited to share with you our story so far and what the future holds.
Photo Credit: D Squared
In 2016, 65 women made an incredible achievement by setting a new Women’s Vertical World Record. This set the standard for the great aspirations we had to come: with our aim to encourage more and more women to train vertical flying. We set our ambitious task to build a 100-way in 2020 and with help from our sponsors training for Project 19 began. During 2019 we were making amazing progress with camps running all over the world, hosted by 40 regional captains from 15 countries. By the beginning of 2020 we had groups of 60+ ladies, flying vertical formation loads and everything was building solidly for our main event.
Photo Credit: D Squared
When the pandemic hit, everything immediately ground to a halt. It now became inconceivable that we could gather over 100 women from around the world to break a world record, when travel was severely restricted and many skydiving centres were closed for extended periods of time. However, we were not going to let this ruin our progress and instead we started to focus on how we can effectively utilize this down time from skydiving to our advantage.
We developed the Project 19 app (which can be found on the app store), hosted a series of educational webinars, and ran various Link Up sessions to help keep the team connected, learning and supported. With the event originally being scheduled in 2020 to commemorate 100 years since women won the right to vote in the US, we are now working towards celebrating the 102nd anniversary instead. The obstacles that were put in our way will only make us stronger and make us want it even more.
Photo Credit: Roy Wimmer Jaglom
Moving into 2021, things are building back up and looking great for the new record attempts, which have been rescheduled to November 20th – 26th 2022 at Skydive Arizona in Eloy. We have scheduled many training camps for the coming year and we are excited to get things building back up again. If you think you still have a long way to go, there is still a year left, so now’s the time to get training! You can check our Facebook page for upcoming events and follow us on Instagram for updates.
Lastly, and most importantly, we have been astounded by the incredible dedication from all the women involved in Project 19, pushing themselves to learn and fight through adversity. The progression has been even more inspiring, considering the obstacles we have faced. We couldn’t have done it without the help from our guest coaches, regional captains, participants and every last supporter of our mission. The women who fought for their right to vote around the world never gave up and neither will we.
Photo Credit: D Squared
