Cradle of Aviation 17th Annual Gala
Celebrates Honorees & 50th Anniversary of Moon landing.
The Garden City based
Cradle of Aviation held its
17 Annual Air & Space Gala
honoring leaders from the
aviation community; Port
Authority Aviation Director
Port Authority NYNJ Aviation Director Huntley Lawrence being presented
with Aviation Leadership Award by (L) Andrew Paton Crdle of Aviation
Museum and Lufthansa, TOGA Board Arthur Molins.
AIRPORT VOICE,DECEMBER 2019 15
Huntley Lawrence, astronaut
Lt. General Thomas
Stafford and Transaero President
Perry Youngwall. They
were presented the Aviation
Leadership Award, the
Spirit of Discovery Award
and the Leroy T. Grumman
Award respectively. Museum
President Andrew Parton,
newly appointed Chair Board
of Trustees for the Museum
Michael Stromer of JetBlue
and dinner vice-chair Board
of Trustees Penelope Kokkinides
took turns welcoming
the crowd and thankful for
the support of the annual gala.
Huntley Lawrence shared a
short video of the transformation
of the Port Authority
airports and thanked his
team for their hard work. Astronaut
Stafford entertained
the audience with behind the
scenes stories of fellow astronauts
and the sometimes unpredicted
situations requiring
ingenuity to solve complications.
The evening festivities
featured an inspiring Choral
presentation by the Freeport
High School Select Chorale,
musical entertainment by the
East Cast Orchestra followed
by an expansive silent auction
to help raise money for the
STEM and aviation programs
offered to students of the surrounding
communities to the
h8ndreds of friends and supporters
of this unique Long Island
“cradle of aviation.” Airlines
JetBlue and Lufthansa
from JFK Airport are strong
supporters of the institution as
well as close to 40 Board members
from companies with ties
to aviation.
Honoree Huntley Lawrence proudly describing all Port airports redevelopment.