Banquet Benefits Project:STRATOS And The Aerospace Center For Excellence

This year marks the Second Annual “Dinner With Legends” banquet during the 2015 Sun ‘n Fun International Fly-In & Expo in Lakeland, FL. An exclusive, intimate dinner with only 250 seats will be held Thursday, April 23 beginning at 7:00 p.m., this rare and exciting opportunity offers a personal, interactive evening and dinner with many of aviation’s most significant aviation notables.  It is a once in a lifetime event not to be missed! A silent auction augments the evening where fine art, a limited edition Breitling Jet Team watch and autographed memorabilia from the Legends in attendance are just a few of the items that can become your personal treasures!

Guests will arrive at the dinner on a red carpet, then enjoy a Pre-flight Hour with premium open bar selections  and a silent auction.  Dine with your favorite aviation heroes on a stellar multi-course dinner and enjoy a presentation honoring the Legends of Aviation in attendance. The presentation will celebrate our honorees’ service and distinction with a series of video clips and personal accounts. We will also introduce the winners of the second annual Project:STRATOS essay competition during the program.

ALL proceeds from this event will benefit Sun ‘n Fun’s on-going  education and youth outreach programs designed and delivered by educators at the Aerospace Center for Excellence located on the Sun ‘n Fun campus. In addition to our own Central Florida Aerospace Academy (CFAA), a career academy of Polk County Public Schools, A.C.E. includes the  Aerospace Discovery at Florida Air Museum, Buehler Aerospace Skills Center, Crossfield  Aerospace Center, Tom Davis Aerospace Education Center, Piedmont Aerospace Lab, and other classroom extension facilities utilized by thousands of students each year for STEM education and activities. The signature element of A.C.E. is our Piedmont Aerospace Experience. This is an actual, fully functioning aircraft that is in the process of becoming the nation’s only Boeing 727 classroom actually located on a high school campus!

The special guests include:

• Breitling Jet Team Members
• Col. C.E.“Bud”Anderson, WWII Triple Ace
• Col. Charles McGee, WWII Tuskegee Airman
• Col. Doug Canning, P-38 Lightning pilot
• Francis Gary Powers, Jr., Author, Cold War Historian and Son of U2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers
• Jessica Cox, Aviation Marvel, Armless Pilot
• Joe Kittinger, Fighter Pilot, Vietnam POW, High Altitude Skydive Record Holder
• Lt. Col. George Hardy, WWII Tuskegee Airman
• Patty Wagstaff, Airshow Industry Aviation Legend
• WWII WASP Members Penny Halberg, Bee Haydu Shirley Kruse and Kay Hilbrandt.

Recently, this journey started with the Florida Air Museum undergoing a transformation from being a history center into a state-of-the-art learning experience, thus becoming the public anchor of the Aerospace Center for Excellence (A.C.E). STEM based learning stations continually being added that will allow students to interact and participate in real world environments to immerse them in the subject and enhance their understanding through hands-on applications.

Sun ‘n Fun contributes in excess of $430,000  annually to scholarship funds that can be applied to the cost of flight training and/or college tuition for aerospace careers. We currently have had over 50 students in flight training and new pilots are “being delivered” every day.

FMI: www.sun-n-fun.org/getdoc/35542735-ad63-44fd-b9ef-21fce9caa2f7/dinnerwithlegends.aspx