Business View Magazine | October 2020

142 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2020 to Runway 11/29 at a later date.” A key focus at McKellar-Sipes is community outreach and Smith talks about how it has evolved: “A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to hire the Airport Manager from Union City, Tennessee. Joann Speer had been Tennessee Airport Manager of the year in 2013; she had been President of the Memphis chapter of the 99s (the International Organization of Women Pilots, also known as The 99s, provides networking, mentoring, and flight scholarship opportunities to recreational and professional female pilots); and she was President of Aviation Adventures (a non-profit organization that teaches aviation to underprivileged children, especially girls). With bringing Ms. Speer to Jackson as the FBO Manager, we opened up an entire world. Aviation Adventures now has outreach to the Boys and Girls Club of Jackson; we also started an Explorer Post. And we are constantly working with area schools and home- school groups to bring them in to show them the different things that we do here at the Airport and the 100-plus careers in aviation that don’t necessarily have to do with flying an airplane. So, there are a lot of things that we’re doing to reach out to the community.” “A couple of years ago, we had a cuboree, here,” Smith continues. “We had 100 Cub Scouts and their parents camping out for the weekend right outside our area. We brought them into the hangar at night for movies and pictures of airplanes. The next day, we had hayrides; we took them over to the National Guard and the Guardsmen showed them the Blackhawk helicopters. We had a really good time. “In January of every year, we sponsor an aviation merit badge day with the West Tennessee chapter of the Boy Scouts and the Explorers. They learn about the control tower; they’re able to learn about flight training; we take them to the ARFF department and our ARFF officers talk to them about aircraft firefighting and rescue;