Two rural Central Appalachian Mountain public school teachers from the western tip of Virginia, that appears more akeen to a scene from Homer Hickam's 'October Sky' coal town, will be named Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at one of the public schools in the Town of Big Stone Gap, VA. The two named public school teachers will fly in the Saturday, October 3, 2009 ZeroGravity flight departing on parabolic spaceflight training from Dulles International Airport in Nothern Virginia.
The Powell Valley Masons and the Southwestern Virginia Technology Council each funded the $5,000+ adventures to demonstrate how classroom teachers may help inspire the next generation as to possibilities in space and space commercial ventures. The next step each of the two organizations will undertake is to hold a competition for at least two of the region's students to fly in ZeroGravity beginning in 2010 so as to ignite interest among students and teachers alike - a similar storyline to what happened in Coalwood, West Virginia with Homer Hickam.
One of the central figures in the development of the nexus between southwestern Virginia public school teachers and the ZeroGCorporation flight has been Fairfax County 5th grade public schoolteacher, SFF board member teachers in space advocate, and former Wise County native Megan Seals who was recently featured in The National Education Association (NEA) Journal.
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