Challenge Air & Founders' Day

This weekend, I got the opportunity to volunteer at the downtown airport in Kansas City. There was an event there called "Challenge Air." The organization finds pilots of small private planes to volunteer to take mentally and physically handicapped kids for a flight. When they get to altitude, they even let the kids take over some of the controls! This program, even at surface level, is such an incredible idea.

There is much more to it, however. Some background as to how this organization was started: A navy pilot was going in for a landing on an aircraft carrier, and his landing gear failed. He ejected from the plane, and fell into the water safely. Unfortunately, he landed in front of a giant aircraft carrier and something on the ship struck him high on his neck, paralyzing him from the waist down. Anyone who has ever flown any kind of plane knows that there are foot pedals involved with operating the plane. This man loved to fly, and developed a way to fly a plane using only his hands. His "Can do" attitude is what inspired the idea behind Challenge Air. Challenge Air gives children who are often seen as being able to do very little for themselves the idea that they can do something as complex as flying an aircraft. In doing this, Challenge Air hopes to instill in these children that same "Can do" attitude as its founder.

I saw the faces of two kids there who were nervous and anxious before I helped load them into the plane. When they came out of that cockpit, they had an attitude about them that said, "I can do anything!" True joy in the faces of these kids...just melted my heart.

On a lighter note, my fraternity's Founders' Day was on Friday. We celebrated on Saturday by getting together for a little pigskin on Saturday at the park, and later on in the evening we had a BBQ at one of the guys' houses. Seventy-eight years of a great, and still improving organization building the ever-growing City-Walled. Ad Dei Gloriam.