Wings Over Wiscasset 2014

Wings sets new attendance record

SUSAN JOHNS, Assistant Editor
Sun, 08/10/2014 - 5:30am
Dick Wood, Mike Moran
Dick Wood, left, of Boothbay Harbor looks on as Orlando, Fla.’s Mike Moran, who summers in Boothbay Harbor, takes a up-close look at a T-6 trainer plane on display August 9 at Wings Over Wiscasset. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Jeremy Harmon, Tulsa Living History Association
Jeremy Harmon, right, of Tulsa Living History Association and another World War II reenactor take part in an encampment August 9 during Wings Over Wiscasset at Wiscasset Municipal Airport. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Dave Fredrickson, Daniel Balestrieri, Betty BalestrieriB
Navy veteran Dave Fredrickson, left, of Brunswick, stops to speak with Daniel Balestrieri of Lisbon and his mother Betty Balestrieri, sitting under the wing of a 1946 Piper cub plane. Her husband and his father, Edward Balestrieri, earned a purple heart in the Battle of the Bulge. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Nina Ryan, 11, of Woolwich and brother Michael Ryan, 7, check out a warbird Friday, Aug. 8, during Wings Over Wiscasset at Wiscasset Municipal Airport. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper

With a two-day turnout of about 7,500, Wings Over Wiscasset at Wiscasset Municipal Airport bettered its 2013 draw by about 2,500. This year’s event also raised more than $10,000 for veterans’ groups and other causes, including next year’s WIngs, executive producer Dennis St. Pierre said.

“Very, very happy with the results,” St. Pierre wrote in text messages to the Wiscasset Newspaper on August 10. “I feel very honored and proud to have worked with the many teams of people who made the event possible.

“I cannot express enough the heartfelt gratitude I have for all of the volunteers, team leaders, veterans, airport and city workers, hangar owners, nonprofits, the pilots, the Texas Flying Legends, and the sponsors .... This was about the importance of our veterans, children, history and community,” St. Pierre continued. “We definitely succeeded on meeting our mission.”

This year, Wings became a Friday and Saturday event. Last year’s one-day-only, Wings debut was on a Tuesday and drew a crowd of about 5,000.

As with last year, Wings’ 2014 installment honored veterans, helping them share the past with younger generations and revisit it through the warbirds and other sights and activities, Some people volunteered for or attended Wings in memory of veterans in their families.

Volunteer coordinator Hilary Tounge of Standish wore a photograph of her mother, Lear Tounge, who served as a stenographer in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in Lubbock, Texas during World War II.

Finding some shade under the wing of a parked, 1946 Piper cub Saturday, Betty Balestrieri of Lisbon and son Daniel Balestrieri said they came in memory of her husband and his father, Edward Balestrieri. He earned a Purple Heart in WWII. The Army infantry soldier, who served under General Patton, was badly wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, Betty Balestrieri said.

She praised Wings’ honoring of veterans, and its focus on WWII veterans. “I think that’s wonderful, because we don’t have too many World War II veterans left,” Balestrieri said.

Nearby, Jeremy Harmon of Tulsa (Okla.) Living History Association was drinking from a tin cup an American soldier used during WWII. The kidney-shaped cup fit onto a canteen that could also serve as a stove for heating coffee or tea, Harmon said.

Saturday’s breeze gently billowed  a line of small American flags along the top of the airport fence.

Members of American Legion Post 54 of Wiscasset put on a pancake breakfast each day of the event. Both went well, with Saturday the busier of the two days, post members said.

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