Flying High With 1,400 Attendees at DCoL Love Field Turn Up!

By Mario Tarradell, Public Relations & Marketing Manager

We all know airports as stressful places where we go through a security line – taking off our shoes, bagging our liquids – and then rush to a gate so that we can catch our flight on time.

But these kids now know the behind-the-scenes inside of an airport. The Dallas City of Learning Turn Up! at Dallas Love Field, which took place July 23 at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, welcomed 1,400 kids, parents, exhibitors, partners and more. The four-hour event, always the most attended of the DCoL Turn Ups, began with a bang as more than 30 families stood in line waiting for the doors to open at 10 am.

Like the DCoL Discovery Faire Turn Up! at the Dallas Central Library last month, kids were given a “passport” so they could travel from activity to activity and get stamps validating their participation. Those stamps turned into a DCoL badge signifying they successfully completed the creative learning experience.

Among the activities that soared with kids:

  • The Dallas City of Learning Mobile Tech XPerience, a super cool RV retrofitted with computers, 3-D printers, Lego sumo robotics, and about 40 laptops. There was a long line of kids waiting to get in and check it out.
  • The K-9 demonstration was, naturally, another popular stop with the kiddos.
  • The Mayor’s Back-to-School table saw plenty of traffic because families could register for the big Back-to-School fair Aug. 5 at the Automobile and Centennial buildings in Fair Park.
  • The terminal tours, the chance to explore a Frontier Flyer airplane and other open cockpits, the opportunity to see an operating airport fire truck up close all had kids buzzing.
  • The kids also walked into a real Southwest Airlines plane. Talk about a bird’s eye view.

Add live music from singers and the drum line kids at Town View, free ice cream for the kids, and many, many more activities for a day that truly helped close the opportunity gap that disproportionately affects poverty level and under resourced children.

Big Thought, which manages Dallas City of Learning, sends sincere thanks to the Frontiers of Flight Museum, Dallas Love Field, Dallas ISD, City of Dallas, and the many DCoL donors for their generous support. For a complete list of donors, please go to dallascityoflearning.org.

Photo by José Sosa/Big Thought