Aviation history was made on April 23, 2015 when Mid Island Air Service in Ronkonkoma, New York became the first FSANA chartered "AeroChapter". Fourteen youth from the local community attended their first AeroChapter meeting.
Gail Mancuso, Vice President of Mid Island Air Services stated, "We were overwhelmed with joy at the strong turnout for the first meeting of our Mid Island Air Service AeroChapter. The AeroChapter program will become one of the best aviation and aerospace bridge programs in the history of civil aviation as more young people become engaged."
Chapter Advisors in attendance included Dan Brooks, Don Lawrence and Gail Mancuso. One of the first items on the agenda was the selection of chapter officers. Based on backgrounds and experience, the following youth members were announced as Interim Officers.
President: Dylan Diaz
Vice President: Tanner Asordorian
Secretary: Alyssa Ardizzone
Guest speakers included Nicholas D'Amato, who earned his private pilot certificate in 41 hours through the Eastern Sufolk Boces Program (trained by Mid Island Air). Nicholas has had the opportunity to fly with Al Cerullo who is involved with the movie industry.
Also speaking was Peter Stauffer, founder of the the local Coast Guard Aux flotilla who spoke about the Coast Guard and their mission. He told the audience about how young people at age 17 can become involved with the Coast Guard as observers.
The youth members decided to hold their monthly chapter meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month. Their programs committee will begin to plan for future speakers and activities.
"It is exciting to see the youth of America starting to engage with our newly launched AeroChapter program. The FSANA AeroChapter program will afford young people the opportunity to take on positions of leadership, improve and learn new skill sets and become engaged aviation and aerospace participants," noted Bob Rockmaker, FSANA President and CEO.
FSANA congratulates the Mid Island Air organization for stepping up and leading the way with this new and exciting program.
Organizations interested in establishing an AeroChapter should contact Debbie Sparks, FSANA Director of Business Development at 561-767-6826 or dsparks@fsana.com.