By Natalie Bergevin, Dean Buyers, and Thomas Hoff
Dean Buyers, EAA 84274, is a pilot and member of EAA Chapter 407 in eastern Idaho. Dean was in the Army and stationed in Okinawa from 1973 to 1975. He found himself with plenty of time on his hands and discovered that in the local company reading room there were magazines galore. He found himself taken with Sport Aviation and, once he was safely home, he joined EAA and saved his copies of the magazine, along with every other aviation magazine he’d subscribed to.
Recently he realized the magazines weren’t doing anybody any good stored at his home and decided to share them with other folks interested in aviation. Dean approached Natalie Bergevin, EAA 725434 and president of Chapter 407. If anyone would know where to put resource materials where aviators could make use of it, she would.
It turned out that Natalie already had a library available to local aviators at the Aero Mark FBO at the Idaho Falls airport (KIDA). She contacted Thomas Hoff at Aero Mark and asked if he would consider taking on additional materials, and he kindly agreed to do so.
EAA Chapter 407 bought three bookcases and members of the chapter met at Aero Mark, put the bookcases together, and helped Dean haul the magazines in. It took several people to do that, as Dean donated his entire library of more than 1,000 magazines!
In case you are wondering about how to get access to these magazines, go to Aero Mark. It is at 1940 International Way #2, Idaho Falls, ID 83402. No invitation is needed; just an interest in aviation.
Aero Mark encourages any interest in aviation for everything from school groups to Boy Scouts — you name it and they are available to teach young people about the possibilities of a career in aviation. They host the Idaho Aviation Expo, which is held the third weekend in May. They encourage high-schoolers who are interested in aviation to come talk to aircraft manufacturers during the Expo. In terms of younger folks, they’ve had a whole school’s worth of first graders in to see the airplanes and equipment. They’re open to those things because some years ago there were always kids at the airport, at the fence, hanging out and watching the airplanes. You can’t do that as easily now. For the little kid with the sky in his eyes, this is as close as he can get.