Fellow Rotarians:
Abbotsford Airshow has just requested our club consider supporting this year’s airshow with a return to Hanger 13.
For the past several years, our club has supported Bob Johnson and his Unitex Sales team in the souvenir tent, in part because of the amazing support Bob has provided our club and our projects over the years. However, Bob has given up the souvenir tent and now we have an opportunity to return to Hanger 13 as we did in years past.
Hanger 13 is a restricted area where performers, ground support personnel, volunteers and airshow VIPs go at the end of the day to enjoy a meal, a beverage and some live music.
What we require are TWELVE Rotarians to volunteer for EACH night Friday Aug 7, Sat Aug 8 and Sun Aug 9.
Here’s what you’ll be doing:
Arriving at 8 pm, you will have NOT consumed ANY alcohol or drugs for the previous 24 hours, you will be the holder of a valid driver’s license and personal ICBC coverage on your own car (which you will NOT be using).
From 8:15 until approximately 9 pm, volunteers will be driving EMPTY performers’ cars to local hotels, located in Abbotsford, Mission and Langley. Keys will be dropped off at the front desk with the performer’s name and room number and held until the following morning. Volunteers will be returned via airshow vans and chase cars.
Once all the performers’ cars have been safely returned to their hotels, the rest of the evening will be spent driving airshow pilots and ground crews back to hotels in provided airshow cars (buses will also run between the hotels). At the same time, two person teams will also drive VIP guests and their cars home. One volunteer will transport the guest’s car and guests themselves, the second volunteer will follow in an airshow provided chase car.
Your shift will run from 8 pm until all guests have been safely returned to their hotels or homes (usually between 1-2 am)
What’s in it for you ?
- The opportunity to have a great deal of fun working with other club members in a ‘hands-on’ project to support an important community event.
- Each night’s service will count as a club make-up
- Each night’s service will earn you a valuable ‘GET OUT OF JAIL” card from President Leslie...designed to protect you from our nasty Sgt of Arms.
- You will get to be an Ambassador of Abbotsford to some very entertaining and amusing pilots and support teams. You will hear some amazing stories on your journey that evening.
- Each volunteer will receive an Airshow Volunteer badge, which will get you free admission to the 2015 Airshow. (Volunteers will receive the badges in advance but will be expected to pay a full adult admission price to the airshow if they do not show up to do their shift, so you could go to the Airshow on Saturday, consume as much liquid refreshment as you like and come back on Sunday night to earn your free Airshow pass. As long as you’re not drinking, you could attend the Twilight show on Friday night and then stay on to serve that night. )
Members in the Abbotsford Rotary Club agree to perform two service events per year (Hole In One shifts + one other event). If you were unable to help out with the past Operation Red Nose or with ongoing clean up on Discover Trail, this opportunity will help you fulfill your service commitment to the club. Those members who have served in this role before always say they really enjoy it. We hope many of them will volunteer again this year and that newer club members who haven’t had a chance to peek behind the Airshow curtain will join us.
If you’re able to be part of our Rotary Airshow team, please send an email DIRECTLY to Bruce Beck at bbb1771@shawbiz.ca with your preferred date(s).
Thank you for your Service Above Self.
