It's All About the Kids, You Know...And OK, It's About
the Parents Too
"Everybody loves kids, and kids love airplanes, and parents
love opportunities for their kids."
Parents might thus grow to love the airport, specifically Westchester's
HPN via the Westchester Aviation Career Fair being held at the NetJets
hangar there October 24-25, says IBM flight ops director Jeff Lee.
Last year's first Westchester jobs fair drew about 1,600 middle
and high school kids and their chaperones; this year the net's been
cast to 309 schools in four counties-2,200 are expected for Friday
and a grand total of 4,000 to 6,000 is expected for the two-day
gathering.
Lee describes the jobs fair as "a broad industry event to
attract kids to aviation." The life (and livelihood) of the
pilot will of course be described, and so will about five dozen
other types of aviation jobs, both civil and military.
Aircraft at the fair are to include a Gulfstream G550, a Falcon
900EX, an F/A-18 fighter, and A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog,"
and several helicopters.
The Westchester event took about 200 volunteers last year; this
year Lee expects 300 to pitch in. He gives special thanks to Gulfstream
for its support, and to NetJets for hosting.
Lee hopes too that other regions will see such fairs as a way of letting communities
see the positive attributes of airports in their midst.
