Tuesday, August 12, 2008

In the Pink!



For this, I will gladly pay slightly higher ticket prices. (Although I still don't understand why airlines DON'T want people to check their bags and instead want them to bring on the plane. Doesn't make one iota of sense to me.)

Taken from the Abilene ReporterNews.

Monday, August 11, 2008 -- The 40 volunteers who applied a full-length pink ribbon and logo to the side of an airplane over the weekend knew it was for a good cause -- they just didn't know it was going to be so much fun.

"It's like a big model airplane," Joe Buie said, gazing at the finished product.

Monday morning, American Airlines unveiled the handiwork of the Abilene volunteers, who are among American Eagle's 400 employees here.

The Embraer regional jet is the first of a fleet that will tout American's sponsorship of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure campaign to fight breast cancer.

A pink ribbon decal, the Komen foundation's trademark symbol, stretched from the tail of the jet to the cockpit. The Susan G. Komen For the Cure logo covered the cowling of the engines.

The newly decorated plane took off for the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Monday morning following a news conference announcing an expanded partnership between the Komen foundation and American Airlines.

The jet that flew out of Abilene was scheduled to join a similar plane flying in from Tulsa. The two planes are among the eight that will carry the Komen logo for the next eight years.

The expanded partnership announced Monday names American Airlines as the Komen for the Cure's official airline and first Lifetime Promise Partner. American has pledged to contribute $1 million a year for eight years to the fight against breast cancer.

The first Promise Grant will fund a $7.5 million project at M.D. Anderson's Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic in Houston.

A large contingent of city officials and American Eagle representatives gathered early Monday in the Eagle Aviation Services hangar at Abilene Regional Airport to make the announcement.

Also present were a number of breast cancer survivors, including an American Eagle flight attendant and the wife of one of the volunteers who decorated the plane.

Diana Rowden, vice president for health sciences at the Komen foundation, noted that American Airlines partnered with Komen in 1988. American sponsors numerous events each year benefiting Komen for the Cure.

The eight planes that will carry the Komen logo to cities serviced by American and American Eagle will further spread awareness of the fight against breast cancer, Rowden said.

"This is simply quite terrific," she said.

The 40 American Eagle volunteers who worked on the plane for 12 hours Saturday and four hours Sunday thought so, too.

The plane was flown into Abilene Regional Airport on Friday night, washed and prepped for its new logo. Getting 40 volunteers for the project was no problem.

"This is Abilene," said Kris Finch, one of the volunteers. "People are proud to work here."

The work was tedious, but fun, they said. The pink ribbon decal came in 21 sections per side or 42 pieces total to put together. First, a stencil was taped to the plane and outlined. Then the stencil was removed and the adhesive ribbon was stuck to the plane.

The plane will fly with the logo for six years and then will get a different version. A lot of air miles will be logged in those six years. The Abilene volunteers were unfazed by the possibility of the logo peeling off in that time.

"If it does," Buie said, "we'll just fix it."

By Loretta Fulton

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