By Barbara A. Schmitz

EAA’s Seaplane Base is less than 5 miles away from the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh grounds, but visiting there is like going to an exotic, faraway land.

A woodland trail, complete with flowers and lights, takes you from the bus drop-off to the actual base. And once there, you’ll quickly realize its charm. Gentle breezes, trees providing shade, and people gathered around picnic tables and chairs, chatting and looking out at the bay of Lake Winnebago where seaplanes are moored and pontoon boats takes visitors for short tours. Nearby, kids splash in the water, people snooze under a tree, and at night, they sit around a campfire.

Lyndsey Anderson, the Seaplane Base volunteer coordinator, said it takes hundreds of volunteers to get this area of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh ready for the fly-in convention. Because it’s located on private land, they are limited when they can come in and get the grounds ready. Work generally starts on Memorial Day weekend when 60-70 volunteers start the bigger projects, such as laying and leveling the ground for a new first aid building or doing dock rehab. But that’s when they also start their beautification efforts, planting pots and beds with flowers.

Throughout the summer, volunteer Patti Bryant comes over daily to water and care for the plants, ensuring they’re ready for this week. “We have 22 whiskey barrels with at least 10 plants in them, plus some in smaller pots,” she said. Her family lives in the back of the bay, so she often takes a rowboat or canoe over and spends one to two hours watering daily. “It feels like a utopia every day I’m here.”

Patti said she’s been doing the flowers for 11 years, but she and her entire family have been volunteering there for more than 20 years. They got started after she and her children drove by the Seaplane Base and noticed the sign that they were looking for volunteers. They’re also a multigeneration family who volunteers, with her father also helping out.

The remainder of the volunteers start trickling in days before the convention begins to prepare for its opening and to keep things going smoothly. Lyndsey said 220 volunteers are helping this year, doing everything from working the camping area and picking up garbage to running the office, giving pontoon rides, moving airplanes with tugboats, and staffing the docks. “It’s quite an undertaking,” Lyndsey said. They have 11 co-chairs to help coordinate the work because their scope is so large, she said.

Visitors to the Seaplane Base appreciate the area so it’s not unusual for many to be repeat visitors.

“This is my second time here,” said Jared Anway, EAA 1659114, of Nashville, Tennessee. “I came to see the seaplanes as last time I didn’t get to actually see planes take off. But this time I’ve already seen two takeoffs and two landings.”

He’s also a big fan of the shade. “It’s pretty chill here.”

Visitor Chris Bergevin, of Boise, Idaho, agrees. This is his 20th visit to AirVenture and the Seaplane Base, and he laughed as he said the burritos bring him back. But seriously, “it’s the awesome airplanes, the cooler temperatures, and the beautiful setting.”

This year, the area was also the place for the “summer of love,” Lyndsey said. Two volunteers were married preconvention in Oshkosh, and with some help from the volunteers, an EAA attendee proposed to his girlfriend on the big yellow chair by the lake on Tuesday. Then her husband-to-be, Andrew Elert, had a bachelor party with the “boat boys” off-site, and she had a bridal shower the following day, with volunteers stopping by to visit and congratulate her. Their wedding will be held November 7.

“Our volunteers are just like family,” Lyndsey said. And many of the volunteers are multigeneration volunteers, as well. Even the Vette family, who owns the land, has multigenerations involved, with Susan Vette Mosley overseeing the office operations, she said.

Lyndsey has advice to those who haven’t been to the Seaplane Base before. “Come on Monday just as the show opens; it’s usually really slow because it always takes a few days before people discover us.”