Noah Johnson Daily Press Kids get an up close look at at one of the planes at the Delta County Airport.

ESCANABA — Roughly 30 youths from Hannahville schools got a chance to tour the local airport.

On Wednesday, the Delta County Airport welcomed 30 fourth and fifth graders from Hannahville to learn about the aviation field.

“it’s all about outreach and getting members of our community more involved in the general aviation picture and trying to give students, especially young people, who may have not had an opportunity to visit an airport,” Delta County Airport Manager Robert Randstadler said.

“Just kind of give them some perspective (and) an idea of what an airport it is, what the daily operations look like, and why people want to use (and) why it’s important to our community.”

Director of the Summer Kids Zone Program, Cathy Uhazie said the program was a great event for the kids, some of which had never been to an airport.

“A lot of them have not had an opportunity to experience this, so we’re all about experiences,” Uhazie said.

She also spoke about the attitudes of the kids, who were all inquisitive and interested in the different aspects of the airport.

“They love all new adventures, right? There are all open to it, they’re at a perfect age and they asked a lot of really good questions. So, they’re interested in this,” she added.

Even though the airport has a small staff, they pulled out all the stops for the kids, showing them different airplanes, fuel trucks and other equipment.

The kids even arrived at the perfect time to watch one of the planes take off.

“Our staff is incredibly hard-working, super supportive, very professional and very impressive. We do have a small staff but they do amazing things even though they’re small in number” Randstadler said.

“Everyone was very enthusiastic about you know, hosting the aviation day and we’re just excited to have Hannahville schools here to show them around.”

Randstadler added that he wants to continue to focus on outreach and education for the community.

“As a former teacher, I’m very much invested in education and I see the value in it and the value in activities like this, so I do want to actively have schools participating more in events like this,” he said.

The event was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the TSA, SkyWest Airlines, two local pilots and the staff at the Delta County Airport.