The 5th Annual Day in the Sky was a big success!

The event was an amazing success and was our largest yet, with record-breaking numbers of pilots, volunteers, exhibitors, and most importantly children with special needs who got to fly!

Forty-seven volunteer pilots donated over 170 flights for more than 450 people (over 210 challenged kids, plus their friends/family).

We estimate that 2,000 people attended the accessible activities and assistive technologies festival, including 300 pre-registered volunteers and over 80 exhibitors representing nonprofit organizations and businesses with accessibility-related services or products.

Click here to read an article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Archives

Click here for 2008 photos (you can even download or order copies).

Click here for a 2008 video news clip from local KION 46 news.

Click here for the 2008 front-page news article from the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian.

Click here to read a front-page news article published in the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian about the 3rd Annual Day in the Sky on April 21, 2007.

Click here for photos from Day in the Sky 2006.

Click here to read a sampling of comments we have received from participants and volunteers who attended Day in the Sky 2006.

At this event held at the Watsonville Airport, 150 disabled and severely ill young people of the Central Coast receive free, half hour airplane rides from 25-35 volunteer pilots. Each participant attends a pre-flight school to learn basic aviation principles, then the children are taken flying over the spectacular California coastline.

Each young person may invite 2 guest passengers for his/her flight = 450 passengers flying that day. Each challenged child is encouraged to take the aircraft controls for short periods during the flight to experience the sense of empowerment that comes from controlling an aircraft. Simultaneously, we host a large ground festival and accessible activities exposition at the airport. Over 800 people attended the festival/expo last year.

In addition to providing an exceptional experience for challenged children, Day In The Sky raises community awareness of the needs of special children.

The event encourages community involvement by engaging volunteers to make the event as special as possible for the children who participate. Each year over 200 volunteers showed up to help out.

To view photos of Day in the Sky 2005 click here, here, and here.

To read an article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel about Day in the Sky, click here.