Strengthening Community in our Hangar: NCSS Summer Visit 2025

Written By Beth White

Every six months, we look forward to welcoming our friends from Northwestern Counseling & Support Services (NCSS) to Franklin County State Airport—and this summer’s visit was extra special. NCSS has been creating “a stronger community one person at a time” since 1958, and when their crew steps into our hangar, their mission comes to life alongside ours. We toured the shop, checked in on our WOMEN BUILD PLANES project, peeked under the cowling of airplanes (and even George’s classic car). Their values—safety, responsiveness, compassion, and integrity—mirror exactly what we want young people and adults to feel when they walk through our pink hangar door.

In the middle of their visit, the Green Mountain Power team dropped in by helicopter to refuel, adding a surprise bit of excitement to the day. Our guests had the chance to meet the crew, ask questions, and see yet another way aviation and technical skills serve our wider community. It was a perfect snapshot of what we believe: when human services, industry partners, and youth programs share space and stories, we build a stronger, more welcoming Vermont—for everyone.

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.

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Rodeo, Music, & Modern Rosies: Summer Fest 2025