Verna & Randy's Rockets

*Verna's Photo Of The Month

PHOTOS OF THE MONTH

The 9th Annual Rocket Day!

Bragg Middle School Gardendale, Alabama!

302 Estes Alpha's; 10 classes, 5 hours elapsed time

At the home of the Rockets, there's nothing like hundreds of 8th graders ready to fly!

As you view these photos pay attention to the students/builders faces as they press the launch button for the first time!

That's right guys, watch the ladies as they show you how it's done!

If you think the man in black is having a good time you'd be correct. There's never anyone more excited about Rocket Day or more proud of our club's involvement, (The Birmingham Rocket Boys, NAR 665) than our club founder, Ron Witherspoon.

Why do men and women ranging in age from 30 to 66 and older expend so much time mentoring kids? Pay attention to the 2 ladies on the right. Does that answer your question?

The man in the red shirt assisting the young people with launching their rockets is current BRB president, Ronald Dunn. Ron has spent countless hours over the last 3 years maintaining the launch equipment, pads and all that goes into outreach events like this and for our monthly launches. Without his willingness to sacrifice his time and abilities, events like this don't happen.

The ladies do love to decorate their rockets!

On Rocket Day you have to "bring the bling!"

Ok, when you are working with more than 300 first time builders / flyers there are going to be a couple of anomalies. Known as a "lawn dart" this usually happens when the chute is packed too tightly.

*No worms were injured making this flight.

Above and below we see 2 photos of the rocket that won the prize for landing closest to the pad.

A Yogi Bear landing...you have to be old enough to understand.

The photos you've seen here are a small sampling of more than 300 flights that took place that day but you should have a pretty good idea of how much fun and excitement these students, their teachers and club members have each year at Rocket day.

I have helped on several occasions over the years but unfortunately this time work prevented my attendance. Still, I want to say how proud I am of our club and the members who worked so hard to pull it off; Ronald Witherspoon, Ronald Dunn, Craig and Christina Brooks and Randy DeArman.

Verna

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