Newspaper Support Needed

AeroKnow Museum’s terrific host subscribes to Wall Street Journal and State Journal-Register. Crews and passengers aboard aircraft arriving and departing the facility are welcome to help themselves to the newspapers: take one with them as they depart for destinations elsewhere, and read them in the lounge.  Recently, I began asking the support staff who greets and services fuel and maintenance customers, who work the front counter overlooking the aircraft parking ramp, for permission to take a copy of the WSJ and SJ-R for the AeroKnow Museum when I find them on the counter after 6:30. Yes, sometimes I work at the Museum until 6:30, just to ask that question. They are happy to give them to me after all scheduled departures have “left the building.”

I’ve also asked them to slip a copy of each paper under the Museum office door when they have copies remaining and I’ve already headed home. That’s  an iffy proposition because sometimes people forget, and often I arrive the next day to find no news under the door and no chance of recovering the papers deep into the dumpster behind hangar one.

It makes sense for AeroKnow Museum to subscribe to WSJ and SJ-R because news of interest to aviation enthusiasts appears first in the “dailies.” Our municipal library’s local history archive employees clip the local paper for specialized news and keep a complete copy of each on hand. The recent news of the Chinese new-technology jet fighter received excellent coverage in WSJ, and thanks to the courtesy of the FBO staff, I was able to clip and keep articles about it. Other aviation news abounds in WSJ, and local coverage of events at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in the SJ-R is first class all the way.

The only tear in the time-space continuum occurs when the papers are not acquired as hoped, and the only way to solve the problem is for AeroKnow Museum to subscribe to them. That’s where I hope YOU will come in.

Wall Street Journal delivery is $119 a year according to their website. That’s an incredible deal! Ditto the State Journal-Register for $270.6o according to the subscription agent I talked with over the phone a few minutes ago. While subscriptions to both are a priority, they are not the highest priorities. We still need a wi-fi computer at the office, for example. We still have to buy more concrete blocks for the glass shelving that — thanks to a donation from Springfield Chapter Illinois Pilots Association — has been paid for en total.  Someone looking to help the Museum in a way that will help future visitors and beneficiaries of our research in materials on hand could contribute signficantly by donating subscriptions to one or both newspapers.

If you are that “someone” please post a comment of your intention. When we confirm the contribution has been made and papers begin arriving at our door, we will announce the good news here.

Now is the time to step up to the plate and donate the subscription to the newspaper of your choice to AeroKnow Museum.

Thanks for considering the proposition.

CAVU and soft landings!