Pittsburgh Aviation Animal Rescue Team to Host Student Educational Tour at Allegheny County Airport

On June 3, students from Pittsburgh's Roosevelt Elementary will tour the PAART plane, hangar and Allegheny County Airport as well as see a presentation on animal rescue flights.

Pilots and board members of the Pittsburgh Aviation Animal Rescue Team (PAART) will provide an educational tour of the Allegheny County Airport and their hangar to a group of elementary students from Pittsburgh's Roosevelt Elementary School on Monday, June 3. The trip will be the conclusion of a school fundraising event in the honor of the school's late art teacher Kathryn Mueller, who loved animals.

The school wanted to do something to honor Mrs. Mueller and Anne McMaster, PAART board member and teacher at Roosevelt, initiated a fundraising drive on May 13 to collect money to donate to PAART. Students are asked to bring in coins to support the drive and the classroom that collects the most money by May 24 will win the field trip to the county airport.

The June 3 event begins at 9:30 am and will include a full tour of the airport provided by Voyager Jet Center as well as a trip to the hangar to see the PAART plane that flies the rescued animals to safety. The students will get to board the plane and hear a presentation about the rescue missions and animals saved by PAART. A check for the money collected by the school will be presented to the Mueller family following the tour, which will conclude at 11:00 am.

To kick off the event, students were given a presentation to teach them about the proper treatment of animals and what shelters and other organizations like PAART are doing to help. The money donated will be designated as "Mueller's Missions" to help as many animals as possible and the students will be able to see pictures of the animals they have saved. "The students have such big hearts that they want to give. When the collection was announced, they emptied their pockets," said Anne McMaster.

The Pittsburgh Aviation Animal Rescue Team (PAART) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2006 with a few volunteer pilots. They have transported hundreds of rescued animals to their new loving homes and work with national networks such as Pilots N Paws and Animal Rescue Flights to provide this service at no charge to either party. They also collect and distribute donated supplies and food to many shelters throughout the tri-state area and are pending their 501(c)3 status.

More information can be found at www.pittrescue.org or on their Facebook page.

Contact: Anne McMaster
412-999-1831
robandanne@comcast.net

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