Contact: Cassandra Bosco

Washington, DC, March 8, 2001 – Four educators who helped the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) create its AvKids Activities Guide and Teachers Resource will receive the 2001 Excellence in Aviation Education Award from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). Award winners Stacy Mueller, Diane Hardy, Frank Hansen and Dawn Wagner all are elementary school teachers at Osceola Magnet School in Vero Beach, FL and are members of the NBAA AvKids Educator Advisory Committee.

This annual award honors teachers from across the United States for their efforts in acknowledging and introducing aviation curricula in the classroom. Criteria for the award include a demonstration of the educator’s creative, original and innovative use of aviation topics and the ability to motivate students through aviation.

The NBAA AvKids (Aviation for Kids) Program was created in 1999 to encourage elementary school students to pursue exciting and challenging careers in business aviation and to educate them about the benefits of business aviation to their communities.

The AvKids Activities Guide and Teachers Resource provides exciting classroom projects related to the basic elements of flight, the parts of the airplane and the role of business aviation in local communities. In helping to design this reference, the Osceola teachers spent a summer creating fun and challenging aviation activities that could be used in the classroom.

Complimentary copies of the AvKids Activities Guide can be ordered in hardcopy format or downloaded via the AvKids Web site at www.avkids.com.

The AvKids Program, sponsored by the National Business Aviation Association, provides resources for the classroom, free of charge, connecting aviators to educators and challenging students with fun activities. Kids learn lessons in science, math, geography and language arts while exploring the world of aviation, especially business aviation.