Lindbergh Awards Going To Bertrand Piccard And Yolanda
Kakabadse
The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation is
celebrating a homecoming this year by holding two very special
events in its home state. On Friday evening, May 20, a hangar party
entitled, "Legends of the Sky: Stories of History-Making Aircraft
and Their Pilots" is planned at the Golden Wings Museum located at
the Anoka County Airport in Blaine. This event is part of the
Blaine Aviation Weekend and features Burt Rutan, widely known for
capturing the $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first civilian
aircraft to reach space twice in a two-week period. Proceeds from
this event will benefit the Lindbergh Foundation, a public
non-profit organization based in Anoka, MN.
A variety of vintage aircraft from the Golden Age of Aviation will
be on display at the hangar party from the personal collection of
Greg Herrick, founder of The Aviation Foundation of America. The
featured aircraft, however, will be the 1927 Ford Tri-motor
4-AT-10, C-1077. This is the actual plane that was used to fly
Charles Lindbergh's mother, Evangeline Lindbergh, to Mexico City to
visit her son in December 1927. This is also the first airplane
Anne Morrow flew in with Charles.
It has had an illustrious list of pilots in addition to
Lindbergh including: Amelia Earhart; Bernt Balchen, first to fly
over the South Pole; Floyd Bennett, first to fly over the North
Pole; and many others. This plane is the world's oldest all-metal
flying airliner, the world's oldest flying multi-engine airliner,
made the first commercial trip from the U.S. to Mexico City, and
was the first Ford Tri-motor to be put on floats. "I am very happy
to be hosting the Lindbergh Foundation's "Legends of the Sky"
hangar party at the museum," said Greg Herrick. "I have always
admired Charles Lindbergh for his contributions to aviation and I
believe strongly in the mission of the Lindbergh Foundation."
Music, food, and great aviation stories will be shared during this
special occasion. John and Martha King of King Schools, Inc. will
be the Masters of Ceremonies.
On Saturday evening, May 21, at the Minnesota History Center in
St. Paul, the Lindbergh Foundation will present its annual honorary
Lindbergh Awards to Yolanda Kakabadse, executive president of the
Foundation for the Future of Latin America, and Dr. Bertrand
Piccard, the first person to fly around the world non-stop in a hot
air balloon. "After 20 years of traveling the country with our
Lindbergh Award programs, we are delighted to be planning our most
important events of the year in our home state," said Lindbergh
Foundation President and Chief Operating Officer Marlene K.
White.
The Lindbergh Foundation moved its headquarters to Minnesota in
1985 under the leadership of the late Governor Elmer L. Andersen
who was serving as volunteer president of the organization at the
time. "Charles A. Lindbergh was a great friend to the Minnesota
Historical Society," said Nina Archabal, Minnesota Historical
Society Director. "He served on our Honorary Council from 1966
until 1974, donated to the Society many of his family's personal
papers, and provided a series of letters that he wrote while
circling the globe in 1969-1970, which recalled his childhood in
Minnesota and were eventually published by the Society as Boyhood
on the Upper Mississippi in 1972. So we are especially pleased and
honored to be hosting the Lindbergh Foundation's 2005 Annual
Lindbergh Award Event at our Society's headquarters, the Minnesota
History Center in St. Paul."
The Lindbergh Award event will begin with a reception in the
Great Hall overlooking the State Capitol. Erik Lindbergh (above),
grandson of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Vice Chairman of
the Board of Directors of the Foundation, will serve as the Master
of Ceremonies during the program portion of the evening. Yolanda
Kakabadse will be recognized for her lengthy record of coordinating
the efforts of international environmental agencies, and for
resolving conflicts between industry and environmental concerns
throughout Latin America and the world. "We also applaud her focus
on clarifying the role of ethics in globalization and on working to
emphasize 'being rather than having,'" said Lindbergh Foundation
Vice Chairman Kristina Lindbergh.
Dr. Bertrand Piccard will be recognized not only for his
historic 'round-the-world flight in a hot-air balloon, and his
spirit of adventure (which so closely mirrors that of Charles and
Anne Morrow Lindbergh), but for the new perspective on the
environment that evolved from that experience. The Lindbergh
Foundation is particularly impressed by his recent Solar Impulse
project, which aims to promote sustainable development through an
entirely solar powered aircraft. Kakabadse and Piccard are both
dynamic speakers and each will give a presentation. The evening
includes a lovely sit-down dinner in the Great Hall.
One of the Lindbergh Foundation's core values is to honor
individual achievement. In doing so, we also honor the Lindberghs
who were each outstanding individual contributors to society -
through aviation, writing, and the environment," said White.
Unquestionably, Charles Lindbergh is best known for his historic
New York-to-Paris flight in the Spirit of St. Louis. It is much
less known that the Lindberghs held a unique perspective on the
Earth stemming from Charles' boyhood growing up on the banks of the
Mississippi River outside Little Falls, MN, his barnstorming days
in the early 1920s, and the survey flights he and Anne pioneered in
the 1930s. Pioneer aviators flew much closer to the ground than we
do today, keeping them more in touch with the land. Over the years,
the Lindberghs witnessed enormous changes in the land, sky and
water in the name of progress.
"The view from the air is a perspective that today's general
aviators can appreciate more than anyone," said White.