The two-year college I work for hosted a merit badge college event for a huge group of Boyscouts from all around central Texas. I volunteered to head up the aviation merit badge class. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't as hard as I imagined trying to keep 30 ten to fourteen year old boys entertained for eight whole hours. Anyway, I taught them basic aviation theories, principles, and systems. We went out and looked at some of our airplanes and also made a quick hike down the road to the maintenance hanger to look at engines and aircraft that our aviation maintenance students use for training. Air Force One was also at the airport since Bush was visiting his Crawford ranch that weekend. Air Force Security was kind enough to let us get a group photo in front of the airplane which was incredibly awesome of them.
At one point, one of the kiddos came up to me to tell me that he's always been afraid of flying but now that he knows a little bit more about it, he's not as scared of it anymore and was actually excited to learn about aviation. That right there made it all worth it. (Just imagine what the media could do for the flying public if they would just put a positive spin on aviation in the news ::) but that's another discussion all together) I've been getting e-mails ever since from kids and parents saying how much fun it was and that they were wanting to come back and do it again next year even though they earned their badge already.
It's rather easy to pick me out of this crowd...
