Free Family Fun Day On March 11, 2006

The International Women's Air & Space Museum will be hosting a Family Fun Day on Saturday, March 11, 2006 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public. The museum will be celebrating Women's History Month with a day of activities saluting the National Women's Air Derby of 1929, the first transcontinental air race for women, which ended in Cleveland as part of the National Air Races.

Margaret Blair, author of the new book, "The Roaring 20", will be on hand to discuss the race and sign copies of her book. National Geographic is the publisher. Visitors will have the opportunity to "participate" in the air race through the museum's Powder Puff Derby game. Participants will receive the name of a pilot who flew in the race and will follow the course of the race through a discovery hunt to find out how (or if!) their pilot finished the race. Members of the local 99's chapter (women's pilot group founded by the aviatrixes who flew in the race in 1929) will be on hand, too.

A special exhibit highlighting some of the museum's artifacts of the race and the pilots will be on display. Free airplane crafts, paper airplane races, and guided tours of the museum round out this family event.

The International Women's Air & Space Museum is located in the Burke Lakefront Airport, 1501 North Marginal Road. Museum admission is free and exhibits are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The Fay Gillis Wells Research Center and Gift Shop are open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

FMI: www.iwasm.org