Pilot in Training Mackenzie Kerr and three “future”  pilots,   Raylee Hancock,  Ava May Rivard, and Emily Sigiuon-photos  250News

Prince George, B.C. -The Prince George Airport Authority has  kicked off Women of Aviation Week  with a  message  and a mascot.

Of the  one million  pilots world wide, only about 50 thousand are women and only 1,450 are commercial pilots. So there is  no  shortage of opportunity for females, that’s the message Mireille Goyer,   a pilot and aviation  educator, who  launched the Women of Aviation Worldwide Week  5 years ago, delivered to  students at Blackburn Elementary.

Also on hand to share her story with the 200  or so  students,   was Mackenzie Kerr,   who at 19  already has  26 hours  of flight time under her belt.  For Mackenzie,   flight  is a family  thing   as her grandfathers  were pilots.   Mackenzie says   she  hasn’t seen any barriers to her learning to fly, but  clearly it  is a male dominated field “I have a male  instructor and I have a lot of males  in school and ground school as well, so that can be a little intimidating, but you can’t let it stop you.”

The Prince George Airport Authority also  introduced their new mascot to the  students.  “Amelia”  is a bear,   decked out in  pilots jacket, scarf and goggles,

(at right, ‘Amelia’  gets a hug from a Blackburn Elementary Student)

Kerr  is currently study Natural Resource Management ” I want to  have it ( pilot’s license) in my back pocket, just so I can travel around BC or   Canada where I  need  too so I can do Natural resource management wildlife  tracking and stuff  like that,  so it’s an easy way for me to travel around  but I think  one day I will  use  it for  my career  as well.”

For  Kerr, the message is simple,   gender  is not a barrier “Find the opportunities, and chase them, you can’t let  not having a lot of females around stop  you from chasing after your dreams”