The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
R.D. Parker Collegiate in Thompson is like any other high school in Canada. Locker-lined hallways take students to a cafeteria, a gymnasium and a variety of general and specialized classrooms. But if instructor Grant Kruger has his way, R.D. Parker will tread new ground and become the nation's first high school to include its own airplane hangar. The potential hangar would house the aircraft mechanics course and give Kruger, who teaches the program, a place to store the single-engine Piper Tomahawk airplane the students use for their training. The facility would be connected to the school and come with a hefty price tag in the neighbourhood of $250,000 and $300,000. Kruger doesn't expect that money to come from the school board. Rather, he and other members of a steering committee are looking for government grants and contributions from special interest organizations. It may seem like a lofty goal but Kruger is optimistic. He said he would like to see the hangar built by September. The Community Futures Development Corporation arm of the federal government's Western Diversification Fund has created a business plan for the project. In the three years the school's aircraft mechanics program has operated, Kruger has assembled all of the equipment he feels he needs. He's just waiting on the hangar. Kruger said the demand for aircraft mechanics in Thompson is much higher than many people think. He sees the school's program as a perfect way to fill a need in the community and provide young people with a viable career option. "At first, I couldn't believe the vastness of the aircraft industry here in Thompson," he said. "We have close to 100 people servicing aircraft here in Thompson. It's phenomenal."
