March 28, 2024

Women and Drones comes to the Osceola Public Library

The Osceola Public Library will welcome Women and Drones 10 a.m. June 26 in the lower level Children’s Library.

Women and Drones began in 2006 wanting to connect more women with this growing industry. Only about six percent of the FAA certified drone pilots in the U.S. are women. In an effort to grow that number the organization decided to begin educating kids and young adults about “flying robots”. They have since developed Kids With Drones and they offer these presentations, books and computer-based drone flight simulators as part of their educational efforts.

Those planning to attend can expect to be there for an hour and learn about a variety of drone related topics.

Attendees with learn about the intersection of drones and aviation, how drones are saving the world, FFA regulations for recreational and commercial pilots, safe drone operations and considerations for buying a drone. Career in the drone industry, such as agriculture, firefighting, search and rescue, wildlife conservation, photography, journalism, geospatial sciences and more will be discussed. There will be a question and answer session at the end as well.

Several types of drones will be brought in as a show and tell. They even have a small drone that is perfect for an indoor flying demonstration.

“We will actually have women here flying drones,” said Library Director Aric Bishop.

These Women and Drones presentations are done indoors due to factors like weather and airspace restrictions. The small drones brought along are able to be flown in smaller sized rooms.

Women and Drones feel that education about safety, current uses and opportunity in the drone industry will prepare young people for careers in the future.

“The whole inspiration behind that is to get women to go into those types of programs, STEM and things like that,” said Bishop. “It’s kind of cool.”