Second successful international outreach completed

Women in Aviation International’s next Girls in Aviation Day is officially set for Saturday, September 23, 2017. With two years of successful experience in managing this international outreach, the third International Girls in Aviation Day is set to be enhanced and expanded to include more WAI chapters and corporate members.

On September 24, 2016, 71 Girls in Aviation Day events were held by 68 WAI chapters and corporate sponsors (15 of them held by collegiate sponsors), across the world with 17 events held by international chapters in Australia, Cameroon, Canada, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Switzerland, and Zambia.

A survey of the WAI chapters that participated in the Girls in Aviation Day indicated:

• The average attendance at a Girls in Aviation Day event was 81 participants, with the average age of participants ranging from seven to 15 years of age.
• 86.7% of Girls in Aviation Day events took place at an airport, with the remainder taking place at schools and other venues.
• Favorite activities of the girls included scavenger hunts, “sitting in airplanes,” “working with airplane mechanic’s tools,” learning the phonetic alphabet, simulator flights, and making rockets.

"Once again, the best statistic that came out of our survey is that 93% of our chapters say that they would 'enthusiastically, yes' host another Girls in Aviation Day. Girls in Aviation Day gives our chapters and corporate members an opportunity to reach out beyond the aviation community to engage and inspire hundreds of young women in their local area,” says WAI President Dr. Peggy Chabrian.  “Girls in Aviation Day has become an event that is as compelling to the WAI membership as it is to the girls in whom we light the aviation spark, and we’re already looking forward to the 2017 event.”

A sample of photos from WAI Girls in Aviation Day events across the world is available at http://photo.wai.org (select the GIAD 2016 folder).