Bring your Child to Work Day more than watching parents

Published May 5, 2015
By Dave Smith
21st Space Wing Public Affairs staff writer

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colorado -- The 21st Medical Group celebrated National Bring Your Child to Work Day April 23.

From morning until late afternoon a group of children visited work areas and participated in special demonstrations aimed at showing what goes on in the 21 Medical Group beyond what might be discovered simply shadowing a parent on his or her work day. Col. Susan Moran, 21st MDG commander, said the event was held to showcase the medical group's capabilities to the children.

"We want to expose them to all the cool jobs by letting them experience a wide breadth of hands-on things," Moran said. "The concept is great...they get more than if they came with their parent and sat with them all day."

Over the course of the day participants learned about things like logistics, flight medicine, health and wellness, the dental lab, physical therapy and bioenvironmental. One of the most anticipated events during the day was a visit to the 302nd Airlift Wing to tour a C-130H Hercules.

Judging by responses from various people involved in the event, Moran's intentions panned out positively. Presenters, guardians and most importantly the kids themselves all gave high marks to the day's activities.

Cai Gunn, 9, was looking forward to the C-130 visit, as well as one other part of the day.

"It's been good," she said. "The best thing is to go into an airplane and be the pilot. And going to lunch."

"It's fun. I always wanted to be a dentist in the military so it was good they came," added Josie Morris, 12.

Ryan Weatherbee, 16, was pleased with several aspects of the day, saying the variety of things to experience was cool.

"The C-130 and the blood test lab, I thought that was pretty cool. Because I took biology two years ago it was good to see them actually doing what I learned," he said.

Ron Thorne brought his granddaughter because he thought it was a good idea to expose her to the military. As a retired member of the Air Force, Thorne appreciated the chance to participate in an event like this one.

"It's an opportunity to get out with my granddaughter. She seems to be enjoying it," he said.

Presenters welcomed the chance to get before a new audience and share how they carry out their part of the mission. Staff Sgt. Katherine Streepy, 21st MDG Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight technician, was glad to show emergency capabilities of the bioenvironmental squadron in responding to emergencies.

"This is good because a lot of people don't know what bioenvironmental is," Streepy said. "It's good to get the word out about what we do."

With the first time out being touted as a success, it is likely there will be more of the same or similar events in the future.

"It's gone great. It's in its first year and our Airmen who have taken this on have done a great job," Moran said. "Our Airmen are spot on."