Launch!

The Amesbury recreation department reached out to us for help with a summer rocket program for kids. Here is the email:

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Hello Howard,

I hope this email finds you well. I am the Office Manager for Amesbury Recreation and I am reaching out as Amesbury Recreation is currently looking to find an instructor/facilitator for a summer rocket program for kids. We wanted to reach out to you, at CMASS, to see if you may know of any individuals in your organization who instruct programs like this? If there is, we would be excited to speak with them regarding this opportunity.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Thank you,

Caroline

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It would be great to provide them with some help, as Amesbury Recreation has always been so accommodating to our club. A number of people that I forwarded the email to agree so I thought I would open it up the the full CMASS membership to get thoughts ideas etc.

Thanks!!

This could be a good opportunity for us to strengthen our relationship with the town of Amesbury so we can keep launching at wonderful Woodsom Farm.

And encouraging youngsters to become part of the hobby has become a sort of specialty of ours, given the times we've hosted some hefty sized Cub Scout packs and similar groups.

I imagine this would involve actually launching rockets as well as building them. Would the town open up Woodsom for them, or is there another location that might serve? You can fly Alpha-sized rockets on A8-3s from a soccer field just about any time. Or would they come launch with us in Acton?

What would be the qualifications for instructors, and what's the time commitment? What do they need regarding kits and equipment and building materials?

Does this have to be a strictly summertime thing or would it be possible to get things rolling over the winter? There's plenty of time to get them ready for our April launch next year.

I'll yield now to the next commenter, but I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Rick

Yes I would imagine in addition to building rockets it would be great to have a launch or two. launching at Woodsom would be perfect but we need to be aware of all the requirements there (powerlines, fire hazard, bobolinks, etc) and make sure it's ok with the town to do so. There is also the field on the other side of Lions Mouth Rd to consider as well.

To answer your question about scheduling and time commitment, Caroline sent this response:

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Thank you so much for the reply and excitement in regards to this summer opportunity. Typically our summer programs run 4 or 5 days during the week, and some run for just a few hours during the day (like an 8am-12pm) or 8am-4pm each day. Ideally we would be interested in making this work well for the instructor and the kids. We are excited to hear back from you all about any potential interested instructors.

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Howard

Where we use the north side of Woodsom Farm for our launches, I would guess this activity would take place on the south side of the farm (the field on the left side of the street as you are coming out of the city center). This is typically kept mowed through the summer.

Has there been any mention of filling out forms to get approval to work with kids? I had to do this some years back when I helped at a Tech Camp at U of New Hampshire.