Memorial Day Event Brings Music, Cars, Planes & Amazing Stories

On Saturday, May 26, 2012, Wings Over Miami hosted it’s first Bluegrass Festival. Welcoming the guests to event was the sound of music from coming  from the talented members of the South Florida Bluegrass Association. The music flowed all day long, one great band performing after another. The museum is looking forward to partnering with Bluegrass association again. The association’s goal was to help the museum raise operating funds and they worked hard to get us set up with our first event.

Out on the ramp, there were some cool vintage cars and many proud owners. Some of the cars were from the British Car Club and others from the Miami branch of  the Antique  Car Club of America. It wasn’t an official club showing for the cars, but it was a wonderful a showing of support for the museum by the owners of the cars. The cars were in top-notch condition and the envy of everyone who stopped to view them.

The event had planes of all sizes. From the simple radio controlled planes built by the local airplane modelers clubs to the museum’s vintage warbirds.  There were even guest warbirds that visited along with the Miami-Dade Police helicopter! As we always try to do, the museum’s planes were up in the air doing fly-bys that provided excitement to our younger guests and photo opportunities to our adults! With many veterans in the crowd, the sight of the warbirds in flight renewed their sense of pride in their military accomplishments.

The veterans were invited to visit to have their photos taken. Three photographers volunteered to take the photos and we not only saw some great photos taken, but they garnered some impromptu military stories that added the meaning to the Living History Project.  After hearing the veterans,  it is apparent that the museum is going to have to continue cataloging the stories.

This event was a true community-based event. The museum had volunteers from Miami-Dade College, the Bluegrass Association, the Distinction Group, the Civil Air Patrol and individuals who simply care about the museum’s mission.   Commissioner Martinez, Reliance Aviation and Air Sal all stepped up to make sure that we had what we needed to make the event possible. It was a wonderful blend of volunteerism in action and exactly what Wing’s Over Miami hopes will  happen in the future.