It’s hot on the ramp. The sun, blocked earlier by a thin overcast, now has an unobstructed view and it’s doing its thing with a good deal of enthusiasm. There’s a slight breeze and that helps, but the baggage handlers in my group are sweltering as we form a “bucket brigade” to unload bags from yet another Citation on the airport ramp.
It’s not often that at the end of the day you can feel you’ve done something really worthwhile and actually find yourself enjoying the exhaustion that comes from an honest day’s work. But I had that experience on two different days in early July. I was a volunteer at the Cessna Citation Airlift in support of the first USA National Games of the Special Olympics held in Ames, Iowa, from July 2-7. This was the fifth Citation Airlift; the first four were in support of the International Summer Games. The idea for the airlift evolved from Cessna’s experience at the 1985 International Winter Games when two of its Citations carried the Special Olympics Kansas delegation to Salt Lake City, Utah. Two years later, the Citation Special Olympics Airlift tradition began when Citation operators provided 132 Citations to transport some 1,000 athletes and coaches to South Bend, Indiana, for the International Summer Games.
