Posts Tagged ‘smyrna air center’
GA Contributes on the Ground
What is General Aviation? Mainstream media tells you that it is toys for the super-wealthy, chariots for the elite, excess for pampered executives. Our purpose with Plane Conversations is to tell you that mainstream media is (we’ll be generous here) mistaken.
We’ve shown you how corporate flight departments along with personal and chartered aircraft can save on the actual hard costs of travel. We’ve demonstrated the savings you can find on a balance sheet. We’ve talked how, yes, these are sometimes the toys of the very wealthy who have worked for the privilege of aircraft ownership. But, we’ve also talked about the small business owner who uses his personal aircraft as an essential business tool. We’ve demonstrated how general aviation contributes to mankind, specifically, how private aircraft were used to move tons of aid and NGO aid workers into Haiti. Now, we’d like to tell you a little about how general aviation contributes on the ground here in Middle Tennessee.
In the May 2010 floods in the Nashville area, Smyrna Air Center collected and distributed clothes, food, cleaning supplies, even televisions to hundreds of affected families. McKenna Saunders, Director of Marketing, oversaw the collection and distribution of all items. She said, “The most emotional moment for me was when I met a distraught mother who came into Smyrna Air Center to pick up donation items for her family. I helped her pick out boxes and boxes of goods as she tried to hold back tears, and when we came across a box of baby food, diapers, and wet wipes, her face lit up, and she started screaming with excitement! That’s when it really hit me that people are in desperate need of even the simplest of daily necessities.”
The Smyrna/Rutherford County Airportis very active in community support projects like Meals on Wheels and clothing drives. Each Fall, the airport collects new and gently used winter clothing for children attending the John Coleman Elementary School in Smyrna. The school was originally constructed to serve the children of personnel stationed at Sewart Air Force Base, which became the Smyrna/Rutherford County Airport. Airport Manager Lois Vallance said, “When the Airport Authority was looking for avenues of community service, it only made sense to adopt John Coleman School.” For the Meals on Wheels program, Vallance added, “Some Airport Authority employees and other volunteers are on a rotating weekly schedule to provide assistance to the Meals on Wheels program. Whether its packaging the meals, delivering to a prescribed route–and sometimes staying to chat a few minutes–the volunteers are always as touched as those who receive the hot food.”
CFM employee Shad Holloman (L) with a group working in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Employees at Corporate Flight Management are active in Habitat for Humanity builds and recently were able to volunteer helping out at Feed America First, which provides food to other relief organizations to distribute to rural populations that need a little help. According to Executive Director Tom Henry, this Middle Tennessee facility will distribute some five million pounds of food this year to the hungry just in this area. It was an eye-opening experience to see that we don’t have to look far from home to find people who need a hand. Employee spouses and children also pitched in to repackage beans and rice. Iowa native and recent Tennessee transplant Amber Sulzner said, “I thought this was a really good experience for us all to have a chance to give back to people who are less fortunate in our communities. I wasn’t aware of how many families this organization helped and the amount of food that went in and out of the warehouse on a weekly basis. Overall I felt this was a very good experience and I am now a pro at filling ziplock bags with rice. I also look forward to us hopefully helping this organization again and have even more volunteers.”
So, what is General Aviation? Are we an industry existing in the rarified air of the ivory towers? Not even close. We exist in local and global communities that experience disasters and need. And we do our part to help in those communities whenever we can.
(L-R) Amber Sulzner, Doug Cate, Jon Anne Doty, Jaegar Doty, Jeremy Gillard, Ken Dalton, Bill Allen, Tim Merenda, Melanie Howell, Annette Morton, Debbie Cate, David Augustin, Rachel Charlize, Jerome Vele Reece.
