There is an important community event taking place at Hastings Airport, June 24, 2026, and we would like you to be involved.

The NINETY-NINES are a renowned non-profit international organization of women pilots. They were founded in 1929, and Amelia Earhart was their first president. They named their organization after the original 99 members. Today the Ninety-Nines are composed of 5,500 licensed women pilots from 35 countries. You can see their website at: http://ninety-nines.

One of the many things they do is help airports paint "compass roses". These are not flowers wiht a sense of direction. These are large, attractive functional images; painted on airports, oriented with magnetic north, and usually about 80 to 100 feet in diameter. Every aircraft has to have its compass calibrated periodically using a compass rose. This is very important for safety. These large blue and white compass roses are also attractive and very visible from the air. It will not only improve safety for our many local pilots, but will add distinction and aesthetic appeal to your local airport. Please take a look at: http://ninety-nines.org/airmark.html

Getting this done will be an imporant local event and will be covered by the Hastings Banner and WBCH.

We need to get the community involved. We need volunteers to help lay out the pattern on Friday, June 23, and help paint on Saturday, June 24. (Please note the change of date. We originally were planning May 13, but the asphalt experts told us that was probably too early to do the sealing properly.)

We also need materials:

- Lunch and coffee & donuts for the volunteers

- Long handled rollers and deep pile (rough surface) covers, sealer spreaders, lots of chalk line & chalk, etc

- DONE! - Enough "driveway sealer" for at a 150' x 180' area (27,000 sq ft, 77 five gal pails) We need this by the end of May.
+ Murry's Asphalt of Nashville is providing the exprertice and labor to profeswsionally do this, plus enough materials to do about 12,000 square feet (over $1000 donation).
+ The remainder of the materials are being provided by Larry Kensington ($500), and the Hastings Flying association ($700).

- DONE! - White paint suitable for holding up in all weather on pavement for a number of years: 10 five gal pails (or 50 gallons)
+ Tractor Supply Co. of Hastings has donated all 50 gallons of paint needed for the project.

- DONE! - About 5000' of 2" wide masking tape (28 rolls)
+ WalMart of Hastings has donated all the masking tape

- Several local business have made other contributions toward the project, including
+ Flex Fab $100
+ Sand Ridge Bank $100
+ Barry County Amateur Radio Association $50
+ Felpaush $25
+ K-Mart, TBA

We would be very grateful for any contributions you could make to benefit this project.

Thank you very much.