OUR TOWN: Get a glimspe of your hometown, from air, land and 'tree'

Ormond Beach Observer
Neighbors

A local air club gets a behind-the-scenes look at Kennedy Space Center; make a free time capsule next week at the library; and, thank you, city workers.

BY THE OBSERVER STAFF

Need some space? Air Patrol visits Kennedy center

Twenty-four members of the Ormond Beach Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol took a trip June 28 to the Kennedy Space Center, for a behind-the-scenes tour.

Robert D. Cabana, former astronaut and current director of the center, escorted the group of cadets and officers through the Orion Operations and Checkout Building, where the group got a close-up look at the Orion Space Capsule, scheduled for launch next September.

The group also visited the world’s longest runway and Launch Pad A, as well as was given tickets to the visitor center and passes to the IMAX theater.

The Civil Air Patrol has been in operation for 67 years. Visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com.

Poets lead kids in making time capsules

The Ormond Beach Regional Library, at 30 S. Beach St., will host poets David Axelrod and Daniel Pels 2:30 p.m. Thursday, July 18, for a session to lead children in writing poems to put inside of their own personal time capsules.

The free event, co-sponsored by the Ormond beach Arts District and Daytona Beach’s Creative Happiness Institute, is part of the library’s summer crafts program, and it will lead children in writing descriptions of where they live and what they know.

“Any good description is the stuff of modern poetry,” Axelrod said.

Susan Macomber, library program coordinator, will explain the concept of a time capsule to the kids and show how to decorate them. Pels will help participants with their writing.

“Even little children can have great ideas and observations,” he said. “Parents can sit with them and take dictation so their poems are preserved.”

Call 676-4191, or email [email protected].

Go climb a tree: Here’s to those ‘quietly preserving’ our history

Casements Camera Club photographer Xin Gale was visiting Fairchild Oak, in January, when, high up in the branches, he saw a worker checking the tree’s lighting system for harmful vegetation.

“That was news to me!” Gale says. “So I took out my camera and set to work, with renewed appreciation for all those who quietly preserve the history and beauty of Ormond Beach. … I’d be very happy if my photo would gladden hearts as the tree has for 2,000 years, though that number is arguable. Someone had told me it is about 400-500 years old. Well, I like the bigger number better.”