Bashful Dan

Why was art prodigy Akiane visiting with kids and adults at the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center?   She was sharing her personal story of achievement and her positive personality with others.   Poised and personable, she impressed everyone who met her and I can tell you from Christine, Alex the Tigerboy and I hanging out with her for awhile - watch out for her little brother who I think will become a professional agent down the road for some spectacular clients.

We told you in a previous post that Camp Invention sites around the country typically have about 30 kids participate. Rachel Riddle set a goal of 50 campers participating in Camp Invention at the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center in Sandpoint, Idaho. Rachel Riddle invented a standard for first year camps when she signed up 110 kids and put 50 or more on the waiting list! Way to go R2!

Over 1,500 people attended the open house on Saturday, July 5, 2008 and hundreds more on Sunday, July 6th. Monday, July 7th, marked the opening day of Camp Invention and the one year anniversary of the Aviation Museum and Invention Center. I loved meeting a couple young inventors, a couple of child prodigy’s, a Top Gun Commander, and sampling the food and lemonade. We played music on Sunday and shared the community atmosphere with old and new friends. The best moment was when that cute Hazel Hall and Forrest Bird were together in the midst of the moment. What a joy to behold two Sandpoint treasures arm in arm at this historic event.  Sandpoint’s Hazel Hall and Dr. Forrest M. Bird has proven that one person can make a difference.  They have inspired others to make a difference.   You cannot measure the impact that these two people have made by sowing seeds of encouragement laced with personal empowerment, and dusted with a dare to discover!

Our community and the world owe Dr. Pamela Riddle Bird a gigantic thank you for shining the spotlight on Forrest Birds accomplishments; not to glorify him but to inspire the rest of us to all the possibilities awaiting within each us.  The author of Inventing for Dummies, a commercial pilot, and a household name around the world in the field of technology transfer; she unselfishly set events in motion to create an educational experience that may result in some young local person becoming the person that changes our planet.

What Would You Do If You Knew You Would Not Fail? That was the theme of the week and the young campers certainly stepped up to the challenge. There is plenty of summer left in Sandpoint and you should definitely take your company out to show off the Bird Museum and let experience the inspiration first hand. There is a feeling at this place that history is demanding something from the future. It seems to insist that what we can dream, we can accomplish, and we can soar with science and a heart full of imagination. 

I never thought Bashful Dan Young, Idaho’s Gem Hazel Hall, and Dr. Forrest M. Bird would be standing together in a place where imagineers are being created at the elementary school level.   What an incredible place!  Oh, and p.s. Hazel and I danced (again).