FAIRBURY - Since 1992, the Experimental Aircraft Association has executed the Young Eagles program, designed to introduce kids to the world of aviation, and potentially propel them towards pursuing a career as a pilot, or any other profession that involves a plane. 

On Saturday, about two dozen kids between the ages of eight and 17 lifted off from the small Fairbury airport, joining nearly 2 and a half million others just like them who received their first taste of flight in a small plane. 

“Aviation is such a beautiful world, everybody wants to be part of it, and only one percent of the population gets to do it, but if you look at any television or movie, you’ll usually see some sort of an airplane in it,” said Cristi Higgins, the coordinator for the Young Eagles chapter in Southeast Nebraska. “So we’re just inviting people in - it's just a little window that we crack open, and we want you check it out, take an airplane ride.” 

This program wouldn’t get off the ground without the skills of four local fliers like Don Osborne, Ozzy to his fellow pilots, who spent their Saturday morning helping these youngsters fly the friendly Fairbury skies.  

Some of them are professional pilots, plying their trade to help reinforce local farmers. Others are like Jerry Ebke, who was a dentist in the area for decades but harbored a dream of flying his own plane since he was in dental school. So following guidelines from an official FAA kit, Ebke constructed his own two-seat plane that he and his wife use to vacation, or travel to EAA meetings in Wisconsin. He did such a stellar job building his own plane literally from the ground up that it’s going to be featured in the EAA’s annual magazine later this year. And on Saturday, he used that plane to help fly a handful of kids – and one former wannabe pilot who’s now a reporter and broadcaster – around the Southeast Nebraska sky.  

Higgins has been the coordinator of Chapter 569 of the Young Eagles program for 18 years, realizing her own dream of working in aviation that she harbored since her days as a kid growing up near the Lincoln airport. She couldn’t actually start in the field until she was 31, but eventually she soared to become the first female president of a group that will be celebrating its 50th birthday next year.  

"Aviation is experiencing a huge shortage, in pilots, mechanics, and everything, and we’re expecting that shortage to continue for another 20 years, so really we’re doing some important work here by getting other people interested,” she said. 

Chapter 569 is based in Lincoln and executes events like these all across Southeast Nebraska. And with 13 chapters across Nebraska and scores more throughout the country, Young Eagles has sent alums into aviation academies, into the Air Force, into the workforce, and, most importantly, into the sky – for many of the nearly 2.5 million people who have participated in Young Eagles since its 1992 inception, it’s their first ever foray into flight of any kind, which could spark a dream – just like Higgins, Ebke and Osborne once nurtured – to one day fly a plane of their own.  

“I moved to the area about five years ago, and since I live 15 minutes from here I obviously wanted to use Fairbury airport. It’s also a town that doesn’t have a lot of opportunity. Some of them don’t even know they have an airport here, so I love to say, ‘There’s another way out of town – it's up.’ And just let them know that there’s a lot more opportunity and there’s a big world outside of Fairbury. The jobs here are great and that’s wonderful, but just giving them a different opportunity, that’s what I find pretty awesome.”