Fly Girls

Feb 21

Habitat for Aviation was thrilled to welcome Seven Days reporter, Alison Novak, who spent an afternoon with our Women Build Planes Team on February 11, 2024. Her delightful article Fly Girls: A Franklin County Nonprofit Is Drawing Young Women Into Aviation Careers, beautifully captured the essence of our mission and highlighted the transformative journey on which we’ve embarked to encourage youth, especially women, to explore careers in aviation. We loved Novak’s insightful questions and genuine interest in our programs, and were grateful for the opportunity to share more about our non-profit’s plans for the future.

Novak painted a vivid picture of our bustling hangar at the Franklin County State Airport, where youth and adult women, clad in vibrant pink overalls, are shattering gender stereotypes through their hands-on experiences in aviation. As we continue to expand our initiatives, including gender-inclusive airplane builds and partnerships with local educational institutions and companies, we are grateful for the support of our community, especially for the dedicated volunteers who share our vision of a vibrant aviation sector.

In her interview with WCAX, Alison Novak shared details about our work with Darren Parron and we are incredibly grateful for the affirmations and to our friends in the media for showing the world that women FIX, BUILD, and FLY airplanes!

Beth White

Education Possibilitarian, Artist, Writer, Doula, Mentor, Aviatrix, Breast Cancer Survivor, Pilot-in-Command at Habitat for Aviation

In the spring of 2022, Beth White emerged from a 10-month battle with breast cancer with an idea: to create an apprenticeship program at Franklin County State Airport where youth work alongside adult mentors servicing conventional and electric aircraft. A pilot and airplane mechanic apprentice herself, and with family roots in the trades, Habitat for Aviation provides an taxilane for world learning opportunities for youth and adults who love to work with their hands to enter the FAA’s apprenticeship certification track. Each day she puts systems in place that make real John Dewey’s philosophy that we “learn best what we live” – a deep throughline from her time at Antioch University New England and as Regional Director for Big Picture Learning. Each learning experience is grounded in relationships, relevance, and practice. In October, 2023, Habitat for Aviation launched its Women Build Planes program, where an all-female team of Modern Day Rosies is building an airplane at Franklin County Airport, in northwestern Vermont, to show folks everywhere that despite the fact that only 2.6% of airplane mechanics are female, women BUILD, FLY, and FIX airplanes.

Fly Girls

Rosies Girls with Habitat for Aviation & BETA Technologies

A Brief But Spectacular Film on Habitat for Aviation Airs on PBS NewsHour