Mon, Jun 20, 2005
But Hey, It's All Good
It was a student take-over, plain and simple. No, not the kind
of studen take-over that, in the 60s and 70s, led to the library
being burned to a cinder and the smell of tear-gas wafting
throughout the campus. Nope... in this case, the students of Purdue
University lobbied hard for the right to host both the departure
and arrival ceremonies at the 2005 Air Race Classic.
They won.
This year, 41 teams will compete in the multi-leg event, which
gets underway Tuesday from Lafayette, IN. Each aircraft is
handicapped according to its own flight performance. The team that
beats the handicap by the most for the greatest length of time is
declared the winner. With seven stops before returning to Purdue,
each team has four days to complete the circuit.
That Purdue was chosen as this year's host city for the event
wasn't really a shot in the dark. After all, it was where Amelia
Earhardt taught and is home to the largest collection of Amelia
memorabilia in the world. But that it was selected as the starting
AND finishing point for the Classic -- now that's something
different.
It means the students of Purdue, led
by graduate student Keri Wiznerowicz, had to work especially
hard.
"Usually the Classic starts and ends in different cities," Keri
told ANN. "But we wanted to host the whole thing."
But hosting twice the events meant raising twice the money. Keri
and company rose to the task and were able to obtain $55,000 in
sponsorships from both the school and a number of participating
companies.
(Contributor Libby Woelfert is at Purdue for the event and will
report for ANN throughout the week on happenings at the Air Race
Classic. Stay tuned! --ed.)
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