Civil Air Patrol Students At St. Pete School Plan Cape Canaveral Trip

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — For years, Azalea Middle School educator Willis Reese has long dreamed of taking his Civil Air Patrol students to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

The engineering and drone/aviation instructor thought a visit to the NASA facility would benefit his students in the program, which is a student auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and a nonprofit organization, ever since he first began teaching at Azalea in 2018.

“But nothing ever came through. Either there were not enough chaperones or not enough money,” he told Patch. I’d set ‘em up and then have to cancel on them. But I think this is the year. I think this is the class that’s gonna do it. We have the right parents and support and backing to get this done.”

Donations are being accepted online here. As of Tuesday afternoon, about $8,700 of the $10,000 goal has been donated.

“It’s pretty much in the bag,” Reese said.

All Civil Air Patrol students will be able to visit the Kennedy Space Center for free, thanks to the funds donated to them.

There, they’ll spend time with a NASA engineer or astronaut, who will speak to the students and walk them through a STEM-related project, the teacher said. After that, they’ll visit the rocket gardens and the visitors center.

Any money raised that’s left over following the trip will be used to help pay for uniforms and students in special needs-based situations, Reese said.

He first earned his pilot’s license in 1985 after taking classes through St. Pete Junior College, though he never completed his commercial aviation degree.

He worked in various fields before landing at Pinellas County Schools, including running security and safety operations at a large-scale, long-term drug treatment facility with locations along Florida’s west coast, and in training and public relations for the Florida Department of Health.
Reese eventually turned to teaching when he learned the school district was hiring anybody with a bachelor’s degree in any subject.

“Nineteen years later, I’m still at it,” he said.

At Azalea, he’s found his “niche in education,” he added.

While his main job is teaching seventh-grade engineering students, Reese also teaches drone aviation and a piloted aviation course, where students learn to fly an airplane in a simulation lab.

“I have full leeway to teach as much or as little as I feel that class can handle,” he said.

He was hired at Azalea specifically because the school’s administration wanted to start a drone program and he’s certified for both manned and unmanned aviation.

The school started small with an afterschool drone program.

“That was so popular and so full of students that they came to me and said, ‘Hey, looks like you’re ready to go and put together that drone program,’” Reese said.

When the school saw how popular that was, he added manned aviation to the program and eventually launched a chapter of the Civil Air Patrol.

“I taught math before. I dabbled in teaching a little bit of history and dabbled in some computer sciences,” Reese said. “But (this) has really been great for me because I like to do projects and experiment-based learning instead of sitting in a classroom.”