Well, I think the weather is finally breaking! Saturday was a wash, but on Sunday we were able to jump the whole day! There was nothing but blue skies, light winds, and turbine power! 
Pilot Dave was flying 30EA in Michigan this past weekend at Midwest Freefall. He will also be back on the road this weekend, taking the Otter to Skydive Iowa for their Jumpstart Boogie.
Jerry was back at Archway in Vandalia, IL with the 182 this weekend. He also flew a demo for the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Top Fuel Dragsters where Jason Peters jumped in. Thanks to both Dave and Jerry for going on the road! 
Rook was also away this weekend training in the tunnel with Mandrin. Thanks Kirk for flying while he was away! Mandrin will be doing their first camp here at Skydive Chicago May 24-26 for Memorial Day weekend. They are looking forward to getting in the air!
The recycling bins are all in place and are working out great! Remember to recycle your plastic, glass, and paper! We will be expanding to Aluminum soon. Thanks again to everyone who helped raise the funds and put an effort in implementing the recycling program. 
Memorial Weekend we will also be hosting the WDSRA jump-a-thon to raise funds for a recreation center for people with disabilities. We will also be opening the Auditorium for a gear garage sale…bring out ANY skydiving gear you would like to sell or come scope out the goods! 
The cabins are about 98% complete! They are built, furnished, painted, and wired…all we need now is for the electric company to come out and finish hooking them up! The three cabins will sleep up to 4 people (a bunk bed and a full bed) each. They also have one of the best views here at Skydive Chicago (and it’s never blocked by the corn)! They run $45/night or $280/week per cabin. Pictures and more details will be up on the website soon. Call to make your reservations today! 
The All Inclusive Packages seem to be a big hit for tandem jumpers. We have already sold 6 Shove Your Love packages! We are also offering an Economic Stimulus Package to experienced jumpers: 27 jumps for $600. Economic Stimulus Packages must be purchased by May 31, 2008.
Summerfest is in the works! We are working on adding information to the Skydive Chicago website. You can access the Summerfest page by clicking here or from the main menu on the website. Keep an eye out, I will be adding much more information to the website in the coming weeks! 
Don’t forget to signup for the Guy Wright 36-way invitational taking place June 26-29 by e-mailing Guy at Blskyguy@aol.com or Rook at rook@skydivechicago.com.
The following is taken out of an e-mail from Sandy Grillet if you are interested his contact information follows the text:
I have an idea. I know this is long but if you love skydiving as much as I do, please read on.
As I was trying to get past this long cold winter, I was reading an article about the dwindling numbers in our sport in one of my “Skydiving” magazines. One of the things that kept bothering me was the fact that the mean age of skydivers keeps going up every year. This means we are not getting and keeping the young people interested in our sport.
There are a lot of reasons for this but I believe one overwhelming reason is that there are just so many cool, on the edge, “extreme sports” for young people to try. I also think kids are exposed to these sports and hobbies at younger and younger ages and often develop interests in these activities before they even get out of high school.
I started brainstorming to try to come up with an easy inexpensive way to expose young people to our sport.
First, I knew it had to be simple and painless for the people involved…..You!
Second, I knew, for it to be sustainable, it had to be relatively inexpensive so people would continue this every year.
Third, I knew it would be beneficial if your home drop zone could get some recognition and eventually some future business. 
So here it is:
You (the every day skydiver) buy a subscription to Skydiving Magazine to be donated to the high school of your choice. The cost is $16.00 for a one year subscription (less for multiple years). For every school you sponsor Mike Truffer will give you a personal one year free subscription. Example: Chris Lobdell is buying two subscriptions, one for each of two different schools. Total cost is $32.00. If Chris is not already receiving Skydiving Magazine he will now get the magazine sent to him for two full years (in addition to the schools getting it). If Chris is already a subscriber, his personal subscription will be paid up for two additional years (one for each new school he sponsors). Each year he will receive a renewal notice for each school he sponsored. After that Chris will have to pay for his personal subscription as normal in addition to the schools he is sponsoring.
Hopefully Chris will renew the magazine for the schools each year. Inexpensive!
The two for one offer is only for the initial order and is being offered to those of us getting on board early. I’m not sure how long Mike will continue this offer.
You contact me via email or phone and tell me what school(s) you want to sponsor and what drop zone affiliation you want mentioned. You then send me a check for $16.00 payable to Skydiving Magazine. I will contact the school by phone to speak with the director of the media center (librarian for you old people). This is to be certain that they will indeed make the magazine available to the students and to get the exact address and contact info. At this time I will explain to them what we are doing and why. And to get them to agree that they will post a sponsor sticker on the plastic magazine cover which all schools use. This is pretty standard.
I will then fill out a special form I have developed for this and forward it on to Skydiving Magazine.
All this will be done personally by me. Simple and Painless for you! 
Photo by Pete Jabczynski Mike Truffer has agreed to send the first magazine in a special envelope with a cover letter naming the sponsor along with a professional preprinted sticker to be used for the cover. The sticker will contain the following:
Skydiving Magazine donated by:
Chris Lobdell
Skydive Iowa
www.skydiveia.com
Or whatever DZ you want referenced. Drop Zone recognition!
Mike has also agreed to make a special feature section of the magazine devoted to the younger jumpers of our sport. It will evolve over time but initially start with stories and pictures of teenagers who have started jumping or packing or anything else in our sport. This will be targeted at the young reader with the goal of capturing their interest.
Think about it, you can introduce our sport to 100s of young people every month of every year for less than the cost of one jump ticket. That’s a good investment.
It is important that we move quickly on this as we want the first magazine to get to the school ASAP, before the schools and staff go on summer break. Mike has agreed to send whatever is the last issue immediately after he receives the order so as not to cause any delays. 
A few questions:
Why Skydiving and not Parachutist? Mostly because I have a working relationship with Mike and he has been very accommodating and generous with this whole process. This is not to say that parachutist is out of the question for the future.
Why high schools instead of colleges? I first thought of colleges but after talking personally on the phone with 6 or 7 of the MC directors, each of them stated they are primarily academic and reference libraries and that they don’t display periodicals and suggested that I get in touch with public libraries. None of the college libraries I spoke to were on board for this.
Why not public libraries? This is not out of the question for the future but I believe the high school libraries are the place to capture the interest of young people…
If one out of five active jumpers sponsors just one school, we will have magazines in 6000 schools nationwide and untold numbers of high school kids and future wage earners learning about and becoming interested in our sport.
Capture their hearts and minds and their checkbooks will follow.
I kicked off this idea at our Safety Day last Saturday and I already have 18 subscription orders. Almost everyone at the DZ liked the idea and has made a commitment. What about you? 
It’s giving back to our sport! It’s simple and painless! It’s inexpensive! It’s recognition! It’s in your court!
It’s time to do something! Don’t wait. Don’t put if off. Contact me now. You can make a difference.
Sandy Grillet
SkydiveSG@aol.com
(515) 314-2436
PS: If you are from another drop zone and would like to help get this going at your DZ please contact me and I will help you. It’s not that difficult and I could really use the help.
It sounds to me like Sandy is on to something! See you all this weekend.
Erin |