The inaugural Boys Aviation and Aerospace Day Camp kicked off Saturday morning with a slew of airplanes at the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport.
This event was developed to create awareness of the opportunity young boys have in aviation and aerospace technology, and to inspire young men to pursue their aviation dreams.
The one-day event consisted of education on aviation and aerospace, tours, and resources for those interested in an aviation license or career.
Lauren Dalzell Settles, day camp founder and Owensboro pilot, said she original started a girls aviation event but quickly learned the community wanted a boys event too.
“We are dedicated to increasing awareness of this fantastic opportunity available to young men, and our mission is to create and spark an interest in young children increasing the population of aviators in our community,” she said. “The sky’s the limit. For years, aviation has been an interest of many but attaining that goal has been out of reach for many children and young adults. We are hoping this event will continue to grow for years to come and increase the young aviation population for our airport and community.”
She said the entire day is dependent on volunteers and she is so thankful for a supportive community that is committed to teaching children about aviation.
The boys are split into groups and visit various stations to learn about the air evacuation tea and their helicopter, commercial pilots, air traffic control, civil air patrol and careers in science, technology engineering and math.
“They get to learn how airplanes fly, get in and out of an airplane and a visit a re-flight station where a pilot talks about what all goes into the checklist before leaving the ground,” she said.
Stuart Snow, a pilot from Owensboro said he was trying to instill lessons about airplanes and life in the boys at his station Saturday.
“The more kids we can get involved in aviation is a good thing,” he said. “They are the future of aviation. Start them young. If we can affect two or three of them out of this big group then that’s fantastic — we’ve done our job.”