Appreciation

     Here is a handout from the Freeport Chamber of Commerce. It is marked for immediate release. Write 250 words.

     Stinson Airport will celebrate Stinson Airport Appreciation Day, Sunday, beginning 1 p.m.
     The Junior Chamber of Commerce aviation committee will sponsor the program, which will salute the local field that is one of the nation's busiest airports not handling regular commercial or military flights.
     The field was opened in 1939. Since the field has been in operation there have been more than a million landings and takeoffs without a fatality.
     The program will open with an hour of plane rides for the public. Passengers will pay for the rides at the rate of one penny a pound for their weight. State officials are expected to attend.
     Demonstrations will include crop dusting and spraying and freefall parachute jumps. The Southwest Parachute Association will sponsor the jumps. The association president, Tom Slinkard, who has made 51 safe jumps, will lead three other association members in the 4,500 foot jumps.

     You call the chamber public relations man, Thomas Everingham, to ask for the names of the state officials, and he tells you that William Sullivan, the state commissioner of aeronautics, and Lt. Gov. Harry Lee Waterfield will fly in, arriving about 1:50 p.m. to start the demonstrations. You ask for Slinkard's address. Everingham says that Slinkard won't be there because he tripped off the back steps of his home and suffered a broken leg. But the demonstrations will be staged anyway. He says that the airplane rides also will be given from 3 to 6 p.m. At 4 p.m., the Sports Car Club will give an exhibition of skill driving at the southeast corner of the field. There also will be about 30 aircraft on display at the field in front of the Administration Building.