Young Eagles Rally

July 13 2002

Report by Betty-Lee Ward

Following is a list of Young Eagles that flew July 13, 2002:

Jonathan B Arndt
Tristan Barros-Smith
Alexander Blake
Bobby Blanton
Daniel Blanton
Jocelyn Blanton
Nathaniel Borland
William Boyden
Kevin Brogie
Matthew Brogie
Jorge Luis Castillo
Alec Cen
Nicholas Cen
Samuel Conner
Anthony Domenicucci
Stephanie Domenicucci
Amanda Dwelly
Elizabeth Dwelly
Michael Dwelly
Katelyn Fabbri
Nicholas Fabbri
Peter Fabbri
Brian Floss
Nicholas Gibson
Philip Gibson
Sarah Gibson
Geoff Grady
Emily Hazen
Kyle Hazen
Bradford Holden
David Johnson
Timothy Johnson
Bea Kelley
Daysi Kushinsky
Ana Landaverde
Stephanie Landaverde
Joseph Lane
Joseph Lavin
Sean Lavin
Branden Levenson
Connor Levenson
Anthony McGonagle
Ben McPherson
Kevin McPherson
Nathan Needle
Caitlin Orner
Thomas Orner
John Panetta
Samantha Panetta
Stefanie Panetta
Lura Pansire
Richard Pansire
Evan Rea
Charlotte Rea
Danny Rea
Connor Ring
Abigail Roberts
Elizabeth Roberts
Matt Sheldon
Alexandria Vanentin
Joseluis Valentin
Andrea White

Beautiful weather and a wonderful and patient group of young people, parents, pilots, planes and ground crew resulted in the largest Young Eagles Rally that Chapter 196 has sponsored to date; 62 kids in total!

Young Eagles were from Acton, Ashland, Bellingham, Bolton, Boylston, Clinton, Framingham, Hudson, Littleton, Lunenburg, Maynard, Natick, Northboro, Somerville, Stow, Waltham, Houston TX and Sante Fe NM.

The Young Eagles Program was launched during the 1992 EAA Fly-In Convention at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Its goal is to provide one million young people with a free demonstration airplane ride by the year 2003 - the 100th anniversary of powered flight and the 50th anniversary of the EAA. To date 807,756 have flown.

Eight pilots in all flew July 13th. One pilot made his flights earlier in the day before work, the remainder of the pilots stayed until 3:00 pm. Those wonderful men in their flying machines deserve a very large Thank you. Pilots and plane:

Bill Greenberg		Cessna Skyhawk
Christopher Jenkins		Piper Saratoga TC
Donald McPherson		PA32-260
Jon Engvall		Beech C23
Lee Cooprider		Cessna 182 Skylane
Leo Hickey		Ercoupe
Mark Saklad		Cessna 172
Nels Anderson		Piper Archer

Thank you to all who helped in so many ways to make the day a success for the Young Eagles. Pilots, ground crew, parents and Young Eagles all contributed in a variety of ways. From setting up and taking down the registration area, setting up registration displays, signs, clearing away rubbish, returning tickets to registration table so information could be entered on Young Eagle's record and certificate. Oh yes, and a big thank you to the Gibson family for the two boxes of delicious donuts. Glad Philip came back this year and brought the rest of the family. And Mary, thanks for stopping to get the ice for the cooler with the drinking water. I wonder if next time we could set up a separate small table in restricted area for he pilots where we could put water (and any treats we had). The pilots were so busy they didn't leave the restricted area very often to get out to the registration table.

Special word of appreciation to the photographers (pilots Fred Moses and Hector Constantzos) who were extremely busy. They did a great job getting photos (Polaroid and digital) of the youngsters.

Coordinator Charlie Smith, was busy from beginning to end. And the registration table was a beehive of activity with Mary Smith, Betty-Lee Ward and paperwork.

Twelve of the Young Eagles that flew at the end of the flights will be receiving their certificate and poster in the mail. They have heir Polaroid photo. We used an unexpected number of certificates and posters on Saturday and ran out of them. We'll bring more next time. Thanks for your patience and understanding. You had a long wait for your flight and the day was getting warmer. Good to see you all. One young man, David Lieberman had to leave for work. We are looking forward to seeing him in August.

Unfortunately, we had to defer some flight requests until a later date. The long wait for their turn would have taken us well into late afternoon. Safety and consideration of the number of pilots who were flying on this particular day and how many Young Eagles they could fly and in what amount of time. The remaining scheduled Young Eagle Flights for 2002, include August 10, September 14, and October 12, 2002. We sincerely hope to fulfill the requests of all prospective Young Eagles.

Entrepreneurs, Oliver and Madeline Jenkins provided a good old-fashioned lemonade stand. I understand they also had delicious cookies (made by Mom0). The popular Nancy's Air Field Cafe was closed for a well deserved vacation, July 2-23rd.

A member of the Six of Diamond in an SNJ, World War II trainer, made an appearance at Minute Man during the rally.

Nels Anderson, Bill Greenberg and Charlie Smith were in Natick at the Kids Connect Family Day celebration July 3rd, 4 pm to 8 pm. Chapter 196 had a table with display of material, information, an easel with cockpit poster and some great new signs. This was part of Natick's 4th of July celebration. Several people stopped by including Daysi Kushinsky and her dad. They talked with the pilots and Daysi had her Young Eagle flight July 13th.

Charlie Smith, Young Eagles Coordinator, had placed posters and signs in several location (took two working days to do it). Towns and locations include:

Libraries in Natick, Acton and Maynard
Express Pizza, Maynard
Papa Gino's, Stow
Stow House of Pizza, Stow
Hudson House of Pizza, Hudson
Sorrentos Pizza, Acton

Posted new signs:

Acton Mall, Rte 27 new sign is gone, wonder who took it and why
Stow Mall, Rte 117

The response July 13th, phenomenal.

Here is a photo gallery of the day:

Additional Photos

To sign up for future events or for additional information, please call Charles A. Smith at 508-655-2368 or email him at mcsmith@rcn.com. For last minute information on the day of the event only, call the airport at 978-897-3933.