By Sheldon Spackman

Thousands enjoy Props and Pistons Show and Shine at YQF

May 27, 2018 | 4:07 PM

Thousands of Red Deerians came out to enjoy some sunshine, classic cars and aircraft at the Props and Pistons Show and Shine at the Red Deer Regional Airport on Sunday.

The event was held as a fundraiser for the Red Deer and District Food Bank with patrons bringing cash or food donations to help the organization which helps out those in need in our community.

A variety of food trucks were also there to tempt the taste buds of the patrons on-hand enjoying their outing at the airport.
 

Nicole Holinaty, Director of Marketing and Communications at Red Deer Regional Airport says a big focus for them this year is to be highly involved in the community.

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“The Red Deer Food Bank had kind of stressed that they were in some trouble and needed some resources and some funds,” says Holinaty. “So we thought it was a great opportunity to bring the public in to see some planes. The airshow not being a part of Red Deer anymore, a lot of people want to get up close and personal, so this is a way we can do that.”

She says some of their staff are also car fanatics, so they came up with the idea to bring both cars and planes together.

“We’re also giving the public a chance to interact with our tenants that are here and get to know the businesses that are here,” Holinaty explains. “So donations for the food bank through the gate, every car registered, every plane registered is a donation to the food bank, so it’s been a good cause.”

Nearly 50 planes were on site, in addition to roughly 200 classic cars.

“When we started planning this, we were hoping to have 200 people from the public come to the airport who had never been to the airport before, that was our goal,” states Holinaty. “In 24 hours, our Facebook event had 1,500 people confirmed coming, so it’s surpassed what we could have possibly imagined. It’s our first year, we had very low expectations, so this is an amazing event for us.”

Holinaty says with an extreme pilot shortage growing in Canada, they’re hoping to attract more youth to the industry.

“We’re hoping to get the youth involved with aviation and get them to know the business opportunities out here,” exclaims Holinaty. “We have our training schools on site, so they’re having those conversations with the youth and getting them involved with aviation. Worst case scenario, they came out here and had a good day and they donated to the food bank which is our number one goal today.”