3rd Annual Board Meeting at the Clark’s Farm

Jun 30

We gathered in late June at the Clark Family Farm in North Lincoln for our annual board meeting—and it felt like classic Vermont: sunshine, fresh pasture air, and a long farmhouse table set for friends.

After a make-your-own sandwich spread (with homemade maple-sweetened oatmeal dark-chocolate chip cookies, of course), Zoë Brosky opened the meeting with an impromptu piano improv that set a joyful tone. She then walked us through a year of communications and media wins—stories that carried WOMEN BUILD PLANES and Habitat for Aviation into new circles across Vermont and beyond.

Together we celebrated what this community made possible over the past year: multigenerational teams BUILDING, FIXING, and FLYING; youth earning credit and credentials for real work; mentors opening hangar doors; and a growing network of partners who believe the aviation industry needs the talent we’re cultivating.

We read the freshly printed Annual Report and our White Paper cover to cover, pausing to mark what’s working and where we’ll push further next year—capital campaign milestones, program growth, our income-generating arm of the non-profit, the RANS build, and a clear vision for facilities that match our ambition. The conversation was focused and hopeful, with practical next steps for FY25–26.

We closed the afternoon exactly as one should at a farm: visiting the animals, laughing with kids underfoot, and feeling grateful for the people who make this all possible—Katie and Willa Clark, Charlie Plant, Meg Smith, Zoë, Miranda Gallagher, Disa Tatro, Jojo White, the Albright crew, Taylor Bushey, George Coy, and all the friends and supporters who cheer us on.

We left with full hearts, aligned goals, and momentum—for our learners, our mentors, and our future of aviation in Vermont and beyond. It was a day to remember.

Beth White

Education Possibilitarian, Artist, Writer, Doula, Mentor, Aviatrix, Breast Cancer Survivor, Pilot-in-Command at Habitat for Aviation

In the spring of 2022, Beth White emerged from a 10-month battle with breast cancer with an idea: to create an apprenticeship program at Franklin County State Airport where youth work alongside adult mentors servicing conventional and electric aircraft. A pilot and airplane mechanic apprentice herself, and with family roots in the trades, Habitat for Aviation provides an taxilane for world learning opportunities for youth and adults who love to work with their hands to enter the FAA’s apprenticeship certification track. Each day she puts systems in place that make real John Dewey’s philosophy that we “learn best what we live” – a deep throughline from her time at Antioch University New England and as Regional Director for Big Picture Learning. Each learning experience is grounded in relationships, relevance, and practice. In October, 2023, Habitat for Aviation launched its Women Build Planes program, where an all-female team of Modern Day Rosies is building an airplane at Franklin County Airport, in northwestern Vermont, to show folks everywhere that despite the fact that only 2.6% of airplane mechanics are female, women BUILD, FLY, and FIX airplanes.

3rd Annual Board Meeting at the Clark’s Farm

Miranda As Our Summer Intern at Habitat for Aviation

Seeing Our Sheroes in Aviation for Women