This year marks Carole Holtmeier’s 50th year volunteering during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in the First Aid building.
Carole has been volunteering all her life. She believes there is not one organization in Oshkosh she has not volunteered for. Carole got involved aviation in the 1950s when her partner at the time had an airplane. Since then, aviation has been her niche. At around age 21, Carole left home and worked as a flight hostess for Trans World Airlines. After some time, she focused more on her family but kept aviation a priority.
In the First Aid building, Carole and the other volunteers assess injuries, recommend treatments or next steps, refer them to different hospital locations, and, if they can, fix them right then and there. They also help people when it comes to storing medications, so AirVenture attendees can have a safe, clean space to keep them. Throughout her years of volunteering, she has found there is a family within the volunteering world, including at EAA.
“EAA is doing so much for Oshkosh and showcasing this city to the whole world. The thing that brings me back year after year to volunteer is the family feeling I get being here,” Carole said. “This is a family here within EAA, and I am just happy to be here and be a part of it.”
Dr. Robert Wubben has been volunteering at the First Aid building since 2007. Being around people like Carole shows how amazing the volunteer community is here at AirVenture. He loves seeing the same faces and getting to know other volunteers personally and professionally in the First Aid building.
“My favorite part of AirVenture is this place, meeting the same group of people year after year, reestablishing old friendships, and getting acquainted again,” Robert said. “This is a great group of people, and they do a lot of good in the First Aid building, seeing patients. There is a steady stream every convention of hundreds of people coming in here.”
Connie Campbell, chair of the First Aid building, has been volunteering for 33 years and has witnessed firsthand how caring and kind Carole is when it comes to volunteering.
“This is a family atmosphere. I have been friends with these people forever. You know, you got the one who comes back from Delaware — they have not been here for a couple of years, but they have been out here for 30 years — and then you have your new friends, which you have had for 20 years, and those are your new ones,” Connie said. “Our previous chair came back these years, and she had done it for 40 years, and now Carole is in her 50th year. We would happily help anyone; once we are a friend, we are always friends.”