As the girls at breakfast, I pulled up the information on the "Exploration Space Gala 2017" on the Frontiers of Flight website and found that it would be held on May 18th. Since it's a fundraiser, the tickets were sold at $10,000 for a table of 12! Not only do we not have $10,000 to spend but we don't have 10 friends to split the tickets with for the Gala. At the bottom of the web page, it indicated that there would be individual tickets for sale on May 1st that would cost $250. per ticket! Sofia begged us to go and I didn't want to tell her we could buy individual tickets if that wasn't the case, so I decided to write an email to the email provided. I basically explained how my 4th grade daughter would do just about anything to meet her two biggest heroes and that she wants to be astronaut when she grows up. I mentioned that she wrote her STAAR essay on wanting to meet her hero, Fred Haise and that she promised to set up a lemonade stand every weekend if it meant to could raise money to meet her heroes!
At first, the response we got was that we could purchase individual tickets now, so we responded that we would buy two - one for Sofia and one for CK. As the weeks rolled by, we were contacted by Heather Dickie who is in charge of the marketing of the event and we soon were being asked to be guests of honor and were given tickets to the VIP section, which meant we would meet Fred Haise and Jim Lovell! Those tickets are sold for $1000 each! Then, in the final two weeks before the event, Heather called me and offered something absolutely unbelievable! She asked if Sofia would want to PRESENT the awards to her two heroes! I couldn't believe it and Sofia couldn't either when we told her! She was beyond excited!
Heather invited us to come to the museum the day before the event so we could finally meet Heather, they could walk through the award ceremony so Sofia would know exactly what to do. Heather is such a sweet woman and although this was the first time we've met, we've spent so much time on the phone together that I really felt as if we know each other already! She has been so helpful and sweet to include Sofia in the whole process and it was interesting to watch them walk through the awards ceremony to figure out the best way for Sofia to enter the stage, etc. We also met the President of the museum, who was also so thoughtful and inviting.
After they figured out how to present the awards using a practice stage, Sofia was pulled into another room and interviewed by Heather with the camera man filming her. She is so poised and comfortable and can express herself so well! They only took two takes on a few questions and otherwise they were able to get Sofia's responses in the first try. Heather and John, the cameraman kept exclaiming how Sofia was better than most of the adults they interview! They were completely blown-away, as was I, frankly! As we headed out, Heather showed us the preparations for the event the next night. All the airplanes have been moved out of the hanger and a stage, tables and chairs, and decorations are all being put in place. Heather explained that it would be completely different when we arrive the next evening! I can't wait to see it!
On our way to the entrance, we stopped to look at the Apollo VII space module, which was the first manned flight of the Apollo Program accomplished by Walter Cunningham, Walter Schirra, and Donn Eisele in October 11-22, 1968. Sofia told Olivia and I all about the space module and mission and mentioned all sorts of facts that aren't even on the signs. We then walked through the glass display cases of various space memorabilia and again Sofia started telling Olivia and I all about each item and the mission they came from. One of the museum's employees was nearby and said "You have no idea how incredible your daughter is! We have employees who have worked here for 15 years that don't know all the details your daughter knows. She has an amazing understanding!" I agreed with him and she still shocks me by her passion and knowledge!!
We gave Heather a big hug and headed to our car. As we were getting into our car, the radio talk show host Mark Davis, who will be MC-ing the event tomorrow was parked next to us. He is an adult version of Sofia, an absolute space junkie who knows all the facts of the various missions and astronauts. He was just as excited as Sofia by the idea of being involved in this event and it was fun to talk to him. As we talked, Sofia said "You know, Mike Collins shared the myth that is shared among astronauts that it's not so much that the Saturn V lifts away from Earth as it pushes the Earth away as it takes off." He gave a great belly laugh, and said "Wow! I haven't heard that before! That is fantastic!!" We headed home even more excited for the next night's event!
Sofia at the Frontiers of Flight Museum
Practicing with the stand-ins for the honorees!
Olivia playing in the kid's play area while Sofia is interviewed
Sofia being interviewed!
Heather and the cameraman, John, who is awesome!
Sofia and Heather!
The Apollo VII space module on display at the museum
Setting up for the big event!
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