AIRLIFT
Athlete spotlight
The Indianapolis Colts don’t offer the only world-class football competition in Indiana. Special Olympics Indiana will be sending a delegation of 116 to the Special Olympics 2010 USA National Games, including two flag football teams – one traditional team made up of only Special Olympics athletes and one Unified Sports® team that includes Special Olympics athletes and non-disabled partners. These participants will join eight other teams in Lincoln to introduce flag football to the National Games.
Alex Hayes, Arizona Alex is a member of the Chandler (Ariz.) Special Olympics delegation and a nineyear veteran of Special Olympics. He will participate in flag football at the USA National Games as part of a Unified Sports® team. Alex is pictured here with his unified teammate Andrew Weimers (right). He likes flag football but says his favorite sport is aquatics because he’s one of the fastest in the state. In fact, during a national aquatics competition, Alex swam with a broken arm and still won the gold medal. Alex currently works at Lowes and enjoys driving to work on his Vespa. He loves to travel, and is hoping to one day attend the Special Olympics World Games. Aside from competing, his hobbies include bike riding, video games and photography.
Alex is a great example of the diverse, hard working athletes of Special Olympics – athletes who explore a variety of sports, both to challenge themselves and to find an outlet that suits their specific talents.
Special Olympics Indiana has guided other states to start flag football programs (see the Arizona athlete spotlight) and is helping take the sport to the national level. Dave Breen, director of Sports Management for Special Olympics Indiana, along with current Special Olympics Indiana President & CEO Michael Furnish established the flag football program in the late 1990s, modifying the game’s rules slightly to make them more applicable to Special Olympics competition and completing the proper sanctioning with the Special Olympics international organization.
How to volunteer for the
2010 Airlift
march.2010
CITaTION SPeCIaL OLYMPICS aIRLIFT 2010
Lend your wings to Special Olympics athletes With only four months to go before the start of the 2010 Special Olympics USA National Games we have transitioned quickly from the planning phases of the event into actual implementation. It is no small task to put on one of the world’s largest multisporting events, and we rely heavily on key volunteers and partners to step up and assist in order to be successful. One of the most empowering, exciting and emotional events during the week of the USA National Games is the Citation Special Olympics Airlift. The Airlift is a critical part of the week’s activities, as the Games would not be possible without the generous donations of aircraft, fuel and pilots. More than 3,000 Special Olympics athletes and 1,000 coaches representing nearly all 50 states will be traveling to Lincoln, Neb., for the event. Delegation travel is the largest expense for state Special Olympics programs, and without the Airlift fewer athletes would be given the opportunity to compete. The athletes’ arrival and departure by Cessna Citations is one of the most exciting experiences they will have during the week of the Games. Many have never traveled outside of their home states, let alone in a private jet. For these world-class athletes, the Airlift is their only means of transportation and the only way for them to have the opportunity to compete as world-class athletes.
Registration for the Citation Special Olympics Airlift is simple and exclusively online at www. airlift.cessna.com. Corporations and individual Cessna Citation owners and operators are needed to donate their Citation business jet(s), pilots and fuel on Saturday, July 17 and Saturday, July 24. Your early commitment helps with logistics from manifesting passengers to sequencing your arrival time. Visit www.airlift.cessna.com for a list of those who’ve already committed to the event and a video featuring Harrison Ford, our honorary chairman for the 2010 Citation Special Olympics Airlift.
nsIder
Flag football new to national competition
use of your aircraft to assist with delegation transportation. In doing so, you are making a profound difference in the lives of our athletes, and we cannot begin to explain what a difference this experience will make in your own life.
Charles Cooper President & CEO 2010 Special Olympics USA National Games
Thank you to those who have already signed up. We hope more Citation owners will join our efforts by donating the
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Surrounding states (highlighted on map) are not eligible for the Airlift, however aircraft in those states are still needed. Cessna will work with you to choose a convenient departure point.
Delegation travel is the largest expense for state Special Olympics programs, and without the Airlift fewer athletes would be given the opportunity to compete.
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For more information:
888-LNK-LIF T (888.565.5438) www.airlif t.cessna.com 10%
TOTAL RECOVERED FIBER ALL POST-CONSUMER FIBER
Cessna Aircraft Company • PO Box 7706 • Wichita, KS 67277
Everybody needs a lift now and then...
At a glance • Citation Special Olympics Airlift • July 17 & 24, 2010 • Transporting 2,000 athletes
CITaT ION SPeCIaL OLYMPICS aIRLIF T / JaNUaRY 2010
An Update from the CSOA Director
Cook Portable Warehouses:
On-site volunteers key to Airlift’s success
Hats off to the Airlift & Special Olympics athletes
With only four months left until the Airlift, the Ground Logistics Team is meeting on a monthly basis to make sure we have a plan for all areas of the Airlift. One area we are currently working on is completing job descriptions for volunteers, soliciting volunteers and finalizing volunteer training. An event this size requires a variety of volunteers – greeting each aircraft and their athletes, escorting the athletes off the ramp and into the athlete welcome center, assisting the athletes within the welcome center, hosting the pilot hospitality tent, driving water carts, handling baggage and the list goes on. Even though we need more than 300 volunteers each weekend to ensure the success of this event, it is never a problem recruiting for it. Cessna provides volunteers from our various facilities to assist as ramp marshals, tug drivers, gator drivers who handle transporting baggage and then filling in other positions where necessary. Most of the volunteers who greet each aircraft are members of Cessna’s Senior Leadership Team, lead by Jack Pelton, chairman, president and CEO. Employees have been contacting me daily to find out when we will start taking names for volunteers for the Airlift. The close proximity of the 2006 Games in Des Moines allowed us to send Cessna employees who wanted to volunteer to the Airlift. Many who participated in 2006 want to do so again and others have heard stories of the 2006 Airlift and want to make sure they get a chance to experience this life changing event. Other volunteers will come from Duncan Aviation, Silverhawk Aviation, Air National Guard, general aviation associations, and the Games are actively recruiting from the Lincoln community. Volunteers can be sure that we will keep them busy at the Airlift and that every job is crucial to our success.
July weather in Lincoln is almost guaranteed to be hot so developing a plan to ensure all volunteers stay healthy in the heat is part of the Ground Logistics Team’s plan. We have several team members who are busy calculating how much water, tons of ice, snacks and of course ice cream bars are needed both weekends for the athletes, pilots and volunteers. These items are just as critical to our success as calculating how much fuel is necessary for the aircraft. The Friday before arrivals and departures, all volunteers will go through detailed training where the Airlift layout is reviewed and we take the volunteers through a dry run of Saturday’s activities. Every volunteer will know the routes the aircraft, athletes, tugs, gators and E-Z-Go cars will use and understand these routes have been designed with safety first. There will also be a brief training by Special Olympics for all volunteers. Once we have ensured that all questions have been answered there is nothing left to do but get a good night’s sleep because the day starts for many of these volunteers at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning as we wait for the first Citation to deliver the first group of athletes.
Greg Cook, president and co-founder of Cook Portable Warehouses, donated one of the 235 Citations that transported 1,500 athletes and coaches to the 2006 USA National Games in Des Moines, Iowa. Rhonda Fullerton is Cessna Community Relations manager and director of the Citation Special Olympics Airlift
He was surprised when picking up the delegation in Little Rock, Ark., in his Citation Ultra that the athletes gave him and his copilot team hats. “We decided to treat them like celebrity athletes, so we asked them to autograph the hats for us,” Greg said. “They really got a kick out of that, and we were really moved by their excitement and enthusiasm. That hat is still on display in my office today.” While that was his first experience with the Citation Special Olympics Airlift, it was not his first philanthropic endeavor involving business aircraft. Greg earned his pilot’s license in 1977, soon after high school graduation. He and his father started Cook Portable Warehouses in 1984 and as the manufacturing business grew the need for a business aircraft became obvious. They started with a piston, then a turboprop and finally a jet in 2002, when they purchased the 1996 model Citation Ultra. “I was a new cancer survivor when we started the business, so we got involved early with the Corporate Angel Network,” Greg said. “We’ve also flown for the Veterans Airlift Command. So after we purchased the Citation and received information about the Special Olympics Airlift, we knew we wanted to be involved.”
In addition to helping the Special Olympics athletes and their families, Greg likes that the Airlift helps educate people that business aircraft not only benefit the corporations that fly them but communities across the country.
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Cook is headquartered in the southern Illinois town of Cobden, along with one of the company’s five manufacturing facilities. Other sites are in Mississippi, Texas and Georgia. “We operate mostly in smaller communities,” Greg said, “and the Citation allows us to respond quickly and to get our managers out to our facilities and our dealers efficiently. The Airlift is a great way to let people know that these are true business tools and that many, many philanthropic causes are helped by general aviation.”
In business since 1984, Cook Portable Warehouses is a family-owned business headquartered in Cobden, Ill. Cook manufactures wood shed type buildings at five manufacturing facilities in the United States and uses a network of about 375 dealers to sell, deliver, set up and service the storage buildings.
The experience was so rewarding, he said, he was quick to volunteer his aircraft for the 2010 Airlift. “Hats off to all involved in this most worthy endeavor,” Greg said. “The planning and professionalism of this event is unsurpassed. It was a seamless event for us, and we’re looking forward to our second Airlift.”
Everybody needs a lift now and then...