TAKE FLIGHT! event to soar Saturday
Photo courtesy of TAMC
EVENT ORGANIZERS for the first TAKE FLIGHT! event coming to the Northern Maine Regional Airport in Presque Isle gather at the PenAir counter with the 1,000 golf balls that will be dropped from a Presque Isle Fire Department ladder truck at the end of Saturday’s event. Five lucky event attendees will win a round-trip ticket from Presque Isle to Boston courtesy of PenAir as part of the PenAir and Coca-Cola Great Golf Ball Drop. Helping to coordinate the event are, from left: Brenda Campbell, administrative assistant at the Northern Maine Regional Airport; Theresa Fowler, executive director of the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce; Tony Phillips, general manager of Coca Cola in northern Maine; Ellen Nickerson, manager for PenAir in Presque Isle; D.J. Spooner, transport medicine supervisor for TAMC Crown Critical Care Transport; and Walter Mosher, TAMC Crown Ambulance supervisor and TAKE FLIGHT! aviation lead.
PRESQUE ISLE — Excitement is building for this Saturday’s first-ever TAKE FLIGHT! event to be held at the Northern Maine Regional Airport in Presque Isle. Activities will include a plane parade, helicopter fly-in, live patient air flight demonstrations, TAMC’s Fall Health Fair, a community vendor fair, and the PenAir/Coca-Cola Great Golf Ball Drop.
A collaborative team from the airport, Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce, TAMC, several other stakeholder businesses and organizations, and area public safety officials has worked since early summer to coordinate TAKE FLIGHT!
“The response, both from those we approach about taking part in TAKE FLIGHT! and from members of the community who are hearing about the event, has been phenomenal,” said Jason Parent of TAMC, one of the lead organizers. “It is really shaping up to be a great day that I am certain will draw a lot of folks from around the area. We have an impressive lineup of activities and all told — between the aviation component, health fair, and community vendor fair — over 70 participating groups.”
Among the highlights and features of the Oct. 5 TAKE FLIGHT! event, which will take place from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the General Aviation Terminal at the airport on Skyway Industrial Park, include:
• Scenic Fall Foliage Flights — Short flights over the Star City during peak foliage season. Cost is $40 per person. Organizers are expecting flights to be booked in advance of the event. A special website has been set up for interested community members to reserve and purchase a seat. For more information or to purchase seats on flights, go to www.tamc.org and click on the TAKE FLIGHT! banner. All proceeds will benefit TAMC Crown Critical Care Transport.
• Helicopter Fly-in — Featuring three helicopters, one each from Life Flight of Maine, the Maine Forestry Service and the U.S. Border Protection Agency. Representatives of each group will have personnel on hand and present information about what they do.
• Presque Isle’s First Plane Parade — Coordinated by pilots who fly for Angel Flight, the formation of planes will gather on the runway just before noon before taxiing and taking off in what is certain to be one of the event highlights.
• Crown Critical Care Transport Live Patient Flight Demonstrations — Twice during the event (11 a.m. and 1 p.m.) Crown’s Critical Care Transport team will conduct live demonstrations of a patient air transport. The “patient” will be brought on site to the airport in a Crown Emergency Care Ambulance and transferred onto the Crown Critical Care Transport fixed wing aircraft, which will prepare for takeoff.
Also part of the event will be the unveiling of the new Crown Emergency Care and Critical Care Transport Team logos. A brief ceremony to reveal the new brand will be held shortly after the event start at 10:15 a.m.
• Community Vendor Fair — Featuring more than 30 vendors, including food, crafters and other wares. Among the participants will be The Star-Herald/Print Works, which will provide free hot dogs to attendees, accepting donations for TAMC Critical Care Transport. Coca-Cola of Aroostook will also offer free samples of their healthy beverage line to attendees. Maine Jump will be on site with bouncy houses for children.
• Public Safety Displays — Area fire departments and ambulance services will have vehicles on display. The Presque Isle Fire Department will showcase a unit used at the airport in the event of an emergency.
• TAMC Fall Health Fair — To match the aviation theme, “TAKE FLIGHT … with good health” will take place on site inside the commercial hangar at the General Aviation Terminal. TAMC staff will offer a free seasonal flu shot clinic. A number of free screenings, including cholesterol and blood pressure, will be offered. More than 40 booth spaces will be filled with presentations of various health services and educational displays, such as Northern Maine Community College and University of Maine at Presque Isle student exhibits, ACAP, and more than a dozen TAMC services. Additionally, the Presque Isle Police Department will conduct free fingerprinting for children.
• PenAir/Coca-Cola Great Golf Ball Drop — This unique part of TAKE FLIGHT! will happen at the very end of the event in front of the Coca-Cola building, across Airport Drive from the site of the activity. The first 1,000 adults to enter the TAMC Health Fair in the commercial hangar will have the opportunity to sign up to be a part of the golf ball drop when they stop by the PenAir and TAMC Welcome Center. Attendees can sign up on a numbered ticket at no cost. At 2 p.m., the fire department will raise their ladder truck with a bag filled with 1,000 numbered golf balls at the Coke building. The balls will be dropped from the bag to the ground below. The numbers on the five balls landing closest to the marked target will be matched with the names on the numbered tickets to determine the winners of five free round-trip airline tickets from Presque Isle to Boston, compliments of PenAir.
“We are very excited to partner with TAMC, the CACC, and the Northern Maine Regional Airport to bring this exciting new event to Presque Isle. We are especially looking forward to meeting and greeting people and getting them signed up for the Great Golf Ball Drop,” said Kristin Folmar, director of sales and marketing for PenAir.
“Coca-Cola is glad to be a part of this event. We are especially excited about bringing the first-ever great golf ball drop to Presque Isle,” said Tony Phillips, general manager of Coca-Cola in northern Maine. “This is shaping up to be a County-wide event and an open house of sorts for all of us based on the industrial park.”
FMI, visit www.tamc.org or call 768-4044.
