Aviation Awareness Day to return in 2023

Published 2:03 am Saturday, October 22, 2022

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RESERVE — The fourth annual Aviation Awareness Day is scheduled to return to St. John the Baptist Parish from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 15, 2023 at the Port of South Louisiana Executive Regional Airport, located at 355 Airport Road in Reserve. An alternate rain-out date is scheduled for April 22, 2023.

Aviation Awareness Day is hosted by local nonprofit Guys Achieving Goals. The primary purpose of this event is to expose and educate youth in St. John the Baptist Parish and surrounding parishes about aviation. This event is further designed to stimulate an interest in future educational and employment possibilities within S.T.E.M. related fields by exposing and educating young people on the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics of flying.

Attendees will have a direct opportunity to enjoy a flight experience with participating pilots. This experience directly engages boys and girls in aviation, introduces them to inspiring role models, and supports the primary purpose of stimulating an interest in future educational and employment opportunities within the field.

Aviation Awareness Day in St. John the Baptist Parish is a fourth time event. For this year’s event, Guys Achieving Goals is inviting children from schools in St. John the Baptist Parish and surrounding parishes. During the last event, volunteers flew over 200 children. This year, due to new community partnerships, the nonprofit expects to fly a minimum of 1,250 children ages 11-17. Children must have a parent or guardian present to sign a consent form to fly.

Paul Green, a resident of St. John the Baptist Parish, is the founder of Guys Achieving Goals. He is a 1986 graduate of East St. John High School, a Navy Veteran, and an Aviator who for the past 29 years has been employed by Fedex as an Aircraft Maintenance Technician.

It’s his vision and mission to promote Aviation Awareness Day in his home parish in order to educate and introduce young men and women to diverse professional opportunities within S.T.E.M. fields such as Air Traffic Controller, Aircraft Maintenance, Aircraft Piloting, and more. He is also deeply motivated by an understanding of the value of exposing youth early on in life to professional opportunities and inspiring role models.

After careful planning and consideration, the budget for this event is expected to be $20,000. Various levels of sponsorship and corresponding benefits offered in appreciation of your support. These involve name recognition, logo integration, event participation and more.

These funds will be used to promote and execute the event and cover expenses including: fuel for participating airplanes, hotel rooms to host out of town pilots, event liability insurance, arm bands to use as identification for youths meeting flying eligibility requirements and other associated expenses.

More information can be found at files.constantcontact.com/be755cbc401/bb9171d6-81ce-4ab5-af88-51619795393e.pdf

All sponsorship commitments and recognition forms must be received by April 8, to permit the team the time to print all sponsor recognition and logo sensitive material for this event.