Big hairy blimp thing!
Of course we attended the blimp dedication today in support of our darling hard-working Daddy.
So did other important people, such as the nice lady who donated all the money to buy the blimp. Her name is Rachael Ledbetter. She is from Texas, and she is in the cream suit.
She brought her brother and sister along -- they are all on a road trip from Texas to her sister's house in Maine as part of her sister's 80th birthday (she's next to Rachael, in red). Rachael is a devious young lass -- she kept the blimp a total secret from them until they got to town.
Wait a second, who is this handsome thing? Oh wait, he's the idea man. And he's about to give a speech! Break a leg, Daddy.
But first, some comments from UD's President Harker:
Then comes Daddy!
He thanks Mr. Jack and Tom McKenna at the Delaware Geological Survey, talks about stuff the blimp is up to, including the blimp's recent mission flying over a Delaware marsh with thermal cameras. Most importantly, he thanks Rachael for doing it for the students, and tells her he's already using the thermal camera data in his GIS class for a project this semester. He told me Rachael teared up at this part in his speech, because he's awesome.
After the speech, Daddy, his co-PI Mr. Jack, and Rachael teamed up for a photo-op. I snapped this just after Prez Harker left their group hug (there he is, departing stage right). I think this is just after Rachael broke a bottle of champagne on the gondola to christen it.
Everything was gorgeously prepared, a result of lots of hard work from Daddy, Mr. Jack, pizza-fed students, and event-planner/alumni-gift-coordinator extraordinaire Stacy Muzzi. Viva la blimp!
So did other important people, such as the nice lady who donated all the money to buy the blimp. Her name is Rachael Ledbetter. She is from Texas, and she is in the cream suit.
She brought her brother and sister along -- they are all on a road trip from Texas to her sister's house in Maine as part of her sister's 80th birthday (she's next to Rachael, in red). Rachael is a devious young lass -- she kept the blimp a total secret from them until they got to town.
Wait a second, who is this handsome thing? Oh wait, he's the idea man. And he's about to give a speech! Break a leg, Daddy.
But first, some comments from UD's President Harker:
Then comes Daddy!
He thanks Mr. Jack and Tom McKenna at the Delaware Geological Survey, talks about stuff the blimp is up to, including the blimp's recent mission flying over a Delaware marsh with thermal cameras. Most importantly, he thanks Rachael for doing it for the students, and tells her he's already using the thermal camera data in his GIS class for a project this semester. He told me Rachael teared up at this part in his speech, because he's awesome.
After the speech, Daddy, his co-PI Mr. Jack, and Rachael teamed up for a photo-op. I snapped this just after Prez Harker left their group hug (there he is, departing stage right). I think this is just after Rachael broke a bottle of champagne on the gondola to christen it.
Everything was gorgeously prepared, a result of lots of hard work from Daddy, Mr. Jack, pizza-fed students, and event-planner/alumni-gift-coordinator extraordinaire Stacy Muzzi. Viva la blimp!
posted by Claire at 11:18 PM
1 Comments:
The Hoosiers are VERY Proud of all that Mike has accomplished while at University of Delaware! Looks and sounds like Rachel Ledbetter and University of Delaware are very proud too--is she from Delaware?
Did you take a movie of Mike giving his speech? It couldn't have been a more beautiful day! Kudos to Mike and Jack and all who are working with the Blimp to help us learn new things about our world!!!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home