A Dream Come True

          In 1986 Dennis Toews was a frustrated and confused ten –year- old boy. His family had just arrived in Canada, and Dennis was trying to learn to speak English in a special class at Southwood School.  If you had told him then, that someday he would be living in Hong Kong, and working as a pilot for the top ranked international airline in the world, he would never have believed you. Last week my husband Dave and I met Dennis and his girlfriend Dawn, for dinner at a roof top restaurant here in Hong Kong, and he told us his ‘dreams do come true’ story.

              Dennis, who is the son of Cornie and Maria Toews, immigrated to Steinbach from Paraguay with his family in April of 1986. He attended Southwood and then Elmdale School, the Steinbach Junior High, and eventually the SRSS. During grade eleven and twelve he worked part time at Penner Chev pumping gas and washing cars.  He took a full time job there after he graduated from high school.

         Waldo Neustaeder, his boss, had an incentive and education program to bring in new business. He sent his workers to customer relation seminars in Winnipeg and every six months he rewarded the employee who had referred the most new customers to Penner Chev, with a thousand dollar travel voucher. Dennis won the reward three times and decided to use his travel money to go on a trip to Hong Kong with his friend Ed Wiebe. Ed’s brother Wilf was a pilot for Cathay Pacific Airlines based in Hong Kong. Ed and Dennis flew to Hong Kong on a plane Wilf Wiebe was piloting. Wilf asked Dennis if he’d like to sit in the jump seat in the cockpit during the Vancouver to Hong Kong leg of the journey.  Wilf also arranged for Dennis and Ed to spend time in the flight simulator Cathay Pacific housed in its Hong Kong headquarters. Dennis was hooked! For the next two nights he woke up sure that his bed had sprouted wings and he was flying. He decided then and there that he was going to be a pilot and fly for Cathay someday.

         It was January of 2000 when Dennis arrived back home in Steinbach from his trip to Hong Kong. Before saying anything to his parents about his new career plans he went to Harv’s Air Service to find out about getting his pilot’s license. Owner Harv Penner, knowing the major commitment of time and financial resources it took to become a pilot, told Dennis he could take his first ground school class for free. If he decided after that he didn’t want to be a pilot, Harv wouldn’t charge him a cent. Five minutes into the first class Dennis knew he’d been born to fly. He went home and told his parents he was going to be a pilot. During the next five months, while still working at Penner Chev, he got his pilot’s license and upgraded some of his high school courses so he would qualify for admittance to Mount Royal College in Calgary where he earned a Diploma in Aviation.

     After both his first and second years of college he gained valuable experience flying fishermen up to the Grass River Lodge near Flin Flon owned by Ike and Liz Enns from Steinbach.  A tip from a college classmate landed him a job at an aviation company called North Write in the fall of 2002.  He worked for them for four years. He flew Cessna 172s and Twin Otters often landing on water or ice with pontoons and skis.  Although the majority of his flights involved transporting personnel and supplies for oil and diamond exploration, he also delivered cargo to northern communities and flew hunters and fishermen to vacation spots. He was based in the town of Norman Wells in the North West Territories. It was here he met his girlfriend Dawn Rose, a dental assistant, who flew into the community periodically to provide dental care for the residents.

      While working for North Write he was able to log the 1500 hours of flying time he needed to have a chance at a job with Cathay Pacific. He also had to study for two difficult written exams. He went to Calgary to write the exams and then decided to fly to Hong Kong and personally hand in his resume at Cathay Pacific headquarters there. In December of 2006 he began working for Cathay, the airline that was rated the best in the world in 2009.

           Dennis is based in Hong Kong and flies the Air Bus 340 and 320 to London, Paris, Johannesburg, Rome, New York. Bahrain, Sydney, Auckland and many other destinations.  He loves the opportunity he has as a pilot to see the world and travel to so many different places. Dennis plans to keep working for Cathay. Although he enjoys life in Hong Kong and has bought an apartment there, he may apply for a Canadian based Cathay posting at some point in the future. He’d like to be nearer his family and his girlfriend Dawn, who is only able to be in Hong Kong when she can take time off from her own career commitments.

       Dennis says the question he gets asked most often when he tells people he is from Steinbach, Manitoba is whether he is related to Miriam Toews- since he and the well known writer share a common last name and hometown. While he can’t claim Miriam Toews as kin, her father Melvin was his teacher at Elmdale School, so he does have one connection with the best selling author.

            Dennis says he never would have believed during his child hood in Steinbach that someday he’d be a pilot for Cathay. He has a photo he’s kept to remind him of his  ‘dreams come true’ story. The day he came home from his first flying lesson at Harv’s Air Service he asked his sister to take a picture of him standing in his bedroom pointing to a model Cathay airplane he had hanging from the ceiling. He told his family that someday he was going to fly planes for Cathay. And he is!