Dear friends of LSFM,
As 2017 comes to a close, we have much to be thankful for and much to look forward to in the New Year. During this year, we finished the new building and immediately held our annual gala in the Waltrip Hangar for almost a thousand of our friends and supporters; we closed Galveston, celebrating 27 years of service to the island and then moved everything to Ellington; we flew our airplanes up to their new home in a magnificent fashion in August; we hired and built a new team and prepped for the grandest of openings. Then came Harvey…
While the Museum itself weathered the storm well, we shared in the personal lows and destruction the hurricane wrought on our city and our friends. We found Houston is “strong” and resilient and that recovery for many is still months away.
We opened the Museum first to the benefit of local military and first responders as a respite from recovery efforts and then opened it to all. Our ribbon cutting on September 30th marked the culmination of all the efforts since Hurricane Ike to better posture the Museum and focus on a new mission that both honors our past and inspires our future.
We aren’t here by accident but by the deliberate actions and decisions of our Board of Directors that set us on this course. We thank them and appreciate their vision, commitment and engagement.
We thank all those that gave financially to provide for both construction and operations. Without you none of this is possible.
We are thankful to our many old friends and volunteers that came with us and to the many new ones that joined our ranks. Because of you many young people will now have the opportunity to learn about our aviation past and be inspired by our technological future.
We are thankful for our new friends at Ellington, to the Houston Airport System and to all the military present here. We especially thank Signature Flight Support, who accommodated us in their spaces while ours were being built. We look forward to years of being good neighbors and partners as Ellington grows into the future.
I am thankful for a great staff and our families that are committed to success and fulfilling our mission to inspire young people towards futures of promise and purpose.
On now to 2018 to realize that the best is yet to come as we look forward to new heights and wonder.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Doug
