Ten 8th-grade girls were invited to participate in the second annual Girls in Aviation Day at Bangor International Airport. The girls arrived at their home base for the day, the Airfield Maintenance Shop, where they were introduced to airport staff and played some icebreaker games with students from Brewer who were also attending. Thereafter, the girls visited Lifeflight of Maine, where they learned about its services and how it conducts its medical missions, and they sat on one of the helicopters. After Lifeflight, the girls were transported to the Army National Guard, where they received an overview of operations and got to check out a Black Hawk helicopter, learning about its specialized equipment. The girls also got to get inside the helicopter. Finally, the girls were transported over to the Air National Guard Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting building. Here they learned what it is like to be an airport firefighter, what pathways would help them get this type of job, and the girls got to check out the trucks! A highlight was seeing one of the firefighters use the fireman's pole!
The day wrapped up back at the Maintenance Shop with a Chick-fil-A lunch and a panel discussion with our hosts, who shared their experiences working in the airport's marketing and customer service departments.