Youth Outreach hosts 150 area teenagers

  • Published
  • By MSgt. Andrew Biscoe
  • 439th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. --  Massachusetts highs school youths held May 22 drew more than 150 area high school students.

Organizers with Westover's Youth Outreach hosted teenagers in the Base Hangar. After a welcoming from Col. Steven Vautrain, 439th Airlift Wing commander, the students divided into teams. They toured a C-5, transport jet, and aircraft maintenance areas.

By host ing this event , Westover's Human Resource Development Council has created a partnership and an ongoing outreach service to the high school youths in the surrounding communities of Chicopee, Holyoke and Springfield.

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) convention, held in July 2007, inspired

The Hispanic Youth Leadership Symposium. This working group is responsible for facilitating all activities and projects related to community outreach. Organizers renamed it "Youth Outreach" last year. This was the fifth year that the event was held at the base.

The purpose of Youth Outreach event was two-fold:

-- To reach out to area high school youth in the surrounding communities who have the potential to make a difference and become future leaders, whether it is in the Air Force or the community in which they live;

-- To share experiences and expertise in what Westover has offered, in the quest to achieve and realize the goals of area youths.