WILLIAMSTOWN –Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport officials are planning a children’s event for June as a precursor to the return of an air show in 2025.

During Wednesday’s Wood County Airport Authority meeting, airport Assistant Manager Sydnie Beall said she made a number of contacts and learned a great deal attending the International Council of Air Shows convention last month in Las Vegas. There is too much preparation required for the airport to hold its first show in more than a decade, Beall said, but she is proposing one for next year.

In preparation for that and to test the airport’s capabilities, Beall suggested a kid-focused event with aerial demonstrations and S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities.

“It would give us a chance to practice parking, crowd control,” she said.

Beall said she’s reached out to Discovery World on Market for help coordinating and getting the word out about the event. She said she hopes to build a partnership with the Parkersburg children’s museum that opened last year to include camps and other activities at the airport.

“I think it’s time to start using this as something to inspire little kids,” Beall said, adding that could help build the local aviation community of the future.

Beall said a trunk or treat event the airport held in October drew approximately 2,000 people. Manager Ben Auville told authority members that enplanements for the 2023 calendar year totaled 7,178, up nearly 700 from last year. That could increase by 1,000 when numbers from charter flights and athletic teams that flew into the area for games are included, Beall said. If the airport records more than 10,000 enplanements, its annual federal entitlement would increase to $1 million.

With the additional enplanement numbers, “now we’re looking at a gap of somewhere around 1,500,” Auville said. “That’s a big change – $150,000 in entitlements versus a million dollars.”