Taking her usual lap around the KidVenture hangar at EAA AirVenture, Margie Kreidle recognizes that look on so many children’s faces. She’s been volunteering at this event in Oshkosh for 18 years, but this part never gets old.
From booths teaching kids how to build their own radio transmitter to the learn-to-rivet station, from the life-size model of a NASA space capsule to ww5’s build-your-own-rocket station, Kreidle sees it: that flash of joy and wonder that signals a lifelong passion being kindled.
The local volunteer can remember the precise moment she fell in love with aviation, 70-some years ago as though it were yesterday. Kreidle was a little girl living on a farm with her parents in rural Wisconsin, three miles from what was typically a sleepy, remote airstrip.
“Until one day, the sky blackened with squadrons and squadrons of planes coming back from the war in Korea,” Kreidle said. “I looked up at one plane after another, filled with men who were coming home safe.”
She was hooked, and she encouraged a similar interest in her three kids via trips to watch planes take off and land at observation points near airports in Milwaukee and Chicago. Well, the kids watched the planes; Kreidle “would just sit there watching them taking it all in – they just fell in love.”
All three of her children now work in aviation: an air traffic controller, an airport marshaller and a part-time pilot between them. KidVenture is, in part, her way of paying it forward.
“It reminds me of watching my own kids when they first developed that passion,” Kreidle said. “Seeing their excitement and interest in aviation is just wonderful. I think what captivates kids is seeing planes flying overhead combined with hands-on experiences. That mix really ignites their interest.”
RayLyn’s story: RayLyn Connella is a KidVenture veteran. The 9-year-old has been coming here “since before I was born,” she says matter-of-factly, explaining that her grandmother is a longtime cochair of the event and that her mother was pregnant with her while in attendance at EAA, 10 years ago this summer.
Their family tradition has folded neatly into her childhood. “This is probably one of my favorite things to do,” she told volunteers at ww5’s build-your-own-rocket booth with a bright, practiced confidence. She knows the routine: pick the body tube, secure the nose cone, tape it “real good,” add fins, stick on the decals and take it to the launch pad. “They give a countdown,” she said, “and watching your rocket go is so fun.”
Her technical takeaways are clear and surprisingly formal. “A great rocket goes up straight and comes down straight instead of spinning,” she explained. “The best rocket I built went so high it got stuck in a tree.” Her story is partially about triumph; it’s mostly about perseverance. Connella described returning to the tent after a failed flight to fix a fin or re‑seat a nose cone, then running back out to try again.
“Kids wear their emotions on their sleeve. When they get that ‘aha’ moment, their eyes light up,” said a ww5 volunteer, echoing the arc RayLyn embodies.
ww5 invests: ww5’s involvement is about more than brand visibility at a high-traffic show; it’s a targeted investment in the workforce and in public understanding of aviation.
“It’s a great way to connect the company with future mechanics, pilots and engineers,” said Andrew Mallek, flight deck engineer and a KidVenture volunteer who has worked the ww5 booth for years.
The next two decades will bring major growth in commercial aviation support and services, ww5 leaders project, along with need for more than 2.4 million new aviation professionals through 2045.
“It’s been incredibly rewarding to see the next generation of engineers and designers build rockets and get inspired,” said Wesley Ziegler, who works in customer relations for Global Services. “These kids have an opportunity to see the name ww5 and realize they could be part of that future.”
For ww5 employees on site, KidVenture doubles as a public-facing laboratory for communicating what the company does.
Ziegler described how watching a child go from dejected after a failed launch to triumphant after repairs is “so rewarding” because it’s a live demonstration of learning — exactly the kind of hands-on experience that fuels recruitment and community goodwill.
By Matt Pentz