MELBOURNE, Fla. — Two Florida Tech students and aspiring pilots took to the skies to help victims of the California wildfires.

Blaise Pasquier and Diego Teixeira are best friends, fraternity brothers and College of Aeronautics students.

Pasquier's family lives in California, fortunately far away from the devastating wildfires there, but he decided to recruit Diego to use their flying skills to help families who lost it all.

“When he texted me a whole paragraph of plans of what we were going to do out there every single day out there, I was like, wow, this guy doesn’t want to give up,” Teixeira said.

They then started reaching out to the nonprofit community in Los Angeles and found a collaborator.

“Got a call back ... and they were waiting for us in L.A.,” said Pasquier.

Pasquier's dad owns a company in Oakland, and asked his 40+ employees to donate clothes or anything they could spare.

“Racks of clothing, boxes, everything," Teixeira said. "It’s amazing."

Family and friends donated $4,000 through GoFundMe to get them started.

The students headed from Melbourne to Los Angeles, rented a plane from a local flight school, and loaded up a pallet full of donations.

“They figured out ways to make it work, they didn’t have a plane for the second day but they said don’t worry, they pushed their schedule for us, it was truly awesome,” Pasquier said.

And over several days, they flew 800 lbs of donations to a distribution site.

The flight school donated fuel for a third flight.

It meant they had close to $2,000 left over, which was used to take two families who lost their homes shopping.

“We were telling each other on the way back. We are never forgetting about this,” said Pasquier.

Pasquier and Teixeira said they want careers in aviation, but this experience firms up their passion to help others.

“I think it’s important to share that gift with others, and important to use that gift to do something greater,” Teixeira said.

The students also flew similar relief flights during Hurricane Helene, delivering 2,700 lbs of donations and supplies to people impacted by the storm.