Foothills Sentry November 2020

Page 3 Foothills Sentry November 2020 Expires11/30/2020 Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-pandemic, we have so much to be thankful for during our 30 th year in business. Da Bianca extends a heartfelt thanks to our wonderful customers, neighbors and friends for your continued support of our little neighborhood Italian trattoria. Because of your kindness, patience, and love, we can continue providing fresh, authentic Italian cuisine to our community. We appreciate you voting Da Bianca a Nextdoor “Neighbor- hood Favorite ” for 2020, Opentable “Best Italian” 2020, Restaurant Guru “Best Italian” in Orange in 2020. Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for your support! With love, Marjan and the Da Bianca Staff T R A T T O R I A Grazie di Cuore! Reservations Recommended 714-289-1508 • www.dabianca.com NEW HOURS: Tuesday-Sunday 4:30-9:00 pm 7448 E. Chapman Ave. Orange (on the corner of Chapman and Newport) Wright brothers reincarnated at Cerro Villa Middle School Jacob Burtenshaw and Aden Kilbourne Max Garner Hamza Arar and Makers Club advisor Daniel Baker By Daniel Baker In 2016, I thought it would be cool to expand my STEM Lab class at Cerro Villa Middle School in Villa Park to include a $4,500 flight simulator. Certain I would be denied, I asked for one anyway. A month later, four large boxes appeared in my classroom (my bosses are awesome). I had to write the curriculum for the simulator, and it started with the Wright Brothers. As I conducted my research, I came across a set of plans for a full- scale Wright brothers 1902 glider. Obviously, not useful for my 10- day aviation course, but I am not just a STEM Lab teacher. I am also the Makers Club advisor. I knew we didn’t have the required funds, let alone the space to store a full-scale aircraft on campus, but I still wanted it. Enter Chad Zimmerman, who, at the time, was president of the Villa Park Rotary Club (now a Villa Park city councilman). Rotary was offering a grant for a large-scale educational proj- ect. He asked if I had any ideas. “Hmmm,” (evil smile). Boom! Money problem solved. As for the storage problem, I figured we could build it in sections and store them in the back of my classroom until final assembly. So the proj- ect was a "go." At the beginning of the 2017- 2018 school year, I announced that Makers Club would be building a Wright brothers air- plane. Nearly 50 students signed up, although it quickly whittled down to 12 once the work began: Max Garner, Luke Brown, Tren- ton Ryu, Jack Hanson, Clay Ra- mus, Juan Arelano, Hamza Arar, Reyna Pacier, Jasmine Onofre, Alyssa Zimmerman, Kyle Doug- las and Jafar Kloub. Suddenly, we were faced with the reality of building a real air- plane from scratch, using plans we could barely understand. We had to learn skills we didn’t even know existed, like how to bend wood and square-lashing. Did you know that this airplane was literally tied together with string? Not kidding. To make matters worse, after finally completing the wing skeletons, we realized a fatal flaw and had to start all over … three times. Neverthe- less, by the end of the year we had completed all of the wing skele- tons, and the top wing was fully skinned in white cotton muslin. The 2018-19 school year brought a whole new crop of kids: Logan Pone, Oscar Cama- cho, Amelia Schroeder, Caden Capurso, Noah Nguyen, Martin Ok, Aden Kilbourne, Jacob Bur- tenshaw, Christian Sturm, Ta- meem El-Kaloo and Kaleb Acuna Scott. You should have seen them that first day when we got the wings out of storage and set them up on the scaffolds. The top wing was fully skinned and looked awe- some. One look at that wing, and you could see what you were a part of. We all knew we were go- ing to finish it this year, and it was going to be amazing. It was another year of learning new skills and applying them: French whiplashing, steel cable crimping, drill press and much more. In the end, it all came to- gether in the auditorium, fully as- sembled, just before the COVID virus struck. And there it sat, ma- jestically and alone all summer. When school started again, they needed the space for social dis- tancing, so I had the heartbreak- ing task of taking the plane apart and putting it in storage. The plan now is to wait until COVID is over. Then, to reas- semble the glider, take it out on the football field on a windy day, and fly it the way the Wright Brothers did the first time - as a huge, unmanned kite. After that, its fate is uncertain. But stay tuned. This story isn’t over yet. Daniel Baker is a Cerro Villa STEM teacher and Makers Club advisor. Makers Club members line up along the glider's 32-ft. wing framework. Jack Hansen and Clay Ramos