posted Apr 1st, 2005 - Laurent Beaudouin is the lucky winner of a SkyVenture Orlando certificate, which was solicited by Midwest Skydiving League Director Alan Butt. Chicagoland Skydiving, one of the Midwest Skydiving League hosts, organized a Safety Day event this year at the skydiving center in Hinckley, Illinois, and the MWSL Director provided the SkyVenture prize for the event raffle.

The D.Z. management counted approx. 150 people on site that day. Alan Butt explained why the event is special and enjoys a great participation. "Safety Day is different up here. While it comes during the prime jumping season in the south, up here it is still winter. However, spring is getting close, so it is sort of an unofficial kickoff to the jumping season."

Chicagoland Skydiving re-opened the drop zone for the season the day before the meeting. Many of the locals and regulars had not seen each other since last fall. Alan Butt reported that there were even snow flurries in the morning, but by the time the meeting was rolling the clouds started to part, and it was even jumpable.

However, the temperatures were on the chilly side. With the skydiving center's jump plane of the early season, a Pilatus Porter, held up by weather in New Jersey, there were no jumping activities on Saturday. The Porter did not make it to Hinckley until Sunday.

The upside of the lack of a jump plane on Saturday was the fact that everyone's attention was focused on the Safety Day presentations. The meeting lasted over three hours and included a thirty minute lunchbreak that featured the DZ serving giant Subway hoagies free of charge.

The topics of the Safety Day at Chicagoland Skydiving included general skydiving safety, local airport rules, freeflying, flying video, and packing/rigging. Midwest Skydiving League Director Alan Butt had its own presentation for the league purposes, as well.

He covered the general outline of how the league operates, the MWSL schedule, competition classes, the dive pool and the recent rule changes. Alan Butt finally offered the SkyVenture Orlando certificate with a value of approx. $165 (buy 15 minutes - get 15 minutes for free) as an incentive to have people sign up for the MWSL e-mail list. He thanked SkyVenture's Vice President Operations, Trevor Thompson, for the generous contribution. 55 individuals signed up on site for the MWSL e-mail list and were eligible for the prize.

The lucky winner was Laurent Beaudouin, a native of France with a total of approx. 500 jumps. The special coincidence of the Safety Day story is the fact that the SkyVenture prize found great appreciation by the winner. MWSL Director mentioned that he made four or five jumps with Laurent Beaudouin last fall and knew about the winner's interest in 4-way:

"He and Brian Stupec were interested in forming a 4-way team but were two folks short. They were recently successful in filling those two slots. I don't believe any of the four have been on a team before. They will compete in either A Class or Rookie Class and have yet to decide on a team name."

Alan Butt added that Laurent Beaudouin has not been in a wind tunnel yet: "The SkyVenture prize should be very helpful for him and his goal of becoming a successful 4-way competitor."

Beaudouin confirmed Alan Butt's thoughts with his response to the prize giving: "Thanks again for the prize. I've never been to a wind tunnel, so that's the perfect occasion!! For all of us, this is our first season as a team, so we are all very excited. Our biggest expectation is to be able to learn a lot this year, and of course have a lot of fun doing so. With everything Chicagoland puts together this year, this should be another great season!!"

Beaudouin has not found a name for the new team yet. His teammates are Dina Kafenshtok, Neill Gresham and Brian Stupec. The NSL News will follow up on the name search and the progression of the new MWSL team.