After publishing She Flew Bombers, I joined the small friendly Healdsburg Literary Guild where we discussed events like doing readings at the old Healdsburg Cemetery on different holidays with the public was invited.
At one of our meetings of only ten people, David Beckman, member of the Sonoma County Arts Council, invited me to apply for a grant for their upcoming event.
Much to my surprise I received the grant and was full of excitement and formulated a plan to present the WASPs in a public event.
This was new territory for me I had a BS degree in Health Education and was working to get a MS degree in Marriage, Family counseling. Besides the fact I owned a large Child Care Center license for 44 children and employed six childcare workers. All of this did not educate me in public relations or even public speaking. I knew I would have to learn on my own and was “flying by the seat of my pants”. No one helped me with the planning and the only thing that propelled me was my amazement and love of the WASPs.
Apparently, I seemed to have a personality of determination with an ability to learn and experience serendipitous events that were literally thrown my way!
Former WASP Florence Wheeler had a roster of WASPs that she lent me. There had been 1,078 WASPs that served during WWII.
This roster came from the many reunions that Florence went to in her eighties. It listed all the members of the WASPs that attended. At first, I emailed all the WASPs in all the Western States this proved to be futile as all the emails bounced back or were unanswered. I consulted Florence and she told me that she didn’t email and most of the WASPs just used relatives emails to put on any forms.
I was resolved to find 10 WASPs to attend this public event and called many of the WASPs. Again, many of the phone numbers had been disconnected but I persevered.
Most of women would say to me on the phone, “I would like to go but I can’t drive anymore, and I’ll have to check with my son, daughter, grandchildren or caregiver to bring me up to Northern CA. With each phone call I would smile and think: “You flew bombers and can’t drive?” I reminded myself that the former WASPs were all in their eighties!
Time went by as at last I got the commitment of Six not TEN Wasps to come to the event. I proceeded to pay to rent the Santa Rosa Veteran’s Building on Sept. 12, 2009 from 1-4 PM. I actually had to guess on how many hours this event should be!
Stay tuned for my next blog about one of the WASPs who told her story about her amazing job in the WASPs. These amazing women ferried over 77 types of aircraft from the factories to over 135 Army bases for the men to fly into combat during WW II.