Anyone who’s ever been to events like Oshkosh and Sun ‘n Fun know that there are hundreds of events and activities as well as tens of thousands of people that descend (some quite literally) on these locations each year. While we have a very hard-working and dedicated staff, ANN could not provide you with the extensive information we do without the help of some equally … some might say more … dedicated volunteers who give a week of their time to make sure you have the best possible coverage of the show. As we lead up to this year’s edition of the Sun ‘n Fun Digital Daily, we’ll be introducing you to a number of the people that make all of that possible.
Maria Morrison: SNFDD Feature Editor
Maria Morrison is incredibly excited to reconnect with Aero-News.net and the aviation community at Sun ‘ n Fun this year! This will be her first time ever coming to Lakeland, following eight years as a news stringer at AirVenture. She has never found a more exciting thing to do at airshows than get a “behind-the-scenes” look as a reporter for ANN.
As a young child, Maria and her family moved to Port Townsend, a small Victorian town 40 NM northwest of Seattle. This seaport i s where she graduated from high school in 2018 before heading to Duke University, where she is now a junior. High school interests in mock trial and journalism translated into a double major in Political Science and Earth and Ocean Sciences, as well as her current position of Managing Editor at The Duke University Chronicle.
Next year, she will be the Director of Digital Strategy for The Chronicle while she works on an honors thesis in British WWII aviation. After graduation, Maria plans to attend law school. Maria’s family has always been oriented towards aviation. Her mother is a local flight instructor and her father flies EAA’s B-17, Aluminum Overcast.
For her solo cross-country, Maria flew her Piper Cub to AirVenture at age 16. Three years later, she brought a Piper Apache to Oshkosh to take her multi-engine commercial checkride. Most of her time is logged in a T-41 Mescalero, the military version of a Cessna 172. She also works at the Port Townsend Aero Museum, where youth volunteers restore and maintain vintage aircraft, primarily from the 30’s and 40’s. When she was home during summer 2020, she taught a weekly ground school to young flight students, and was one of the mentors for fabric work, teaching other youth how to cover, pink, rib stitch, and tape fabric.
Outside of school and aviation, Maria enjoys hiking and backpacking, cooking, and riding her horse, Tigger. She also plays fiddle music, a skill she has been trying to cultivate while living in North Carolina.
Maria has been going to airshows and air races with her family for all of her 21 years. Through reporting, she enjoys providing readers with a younger person’s perspective and seeking out interesting interviews to represent the wide variety of experiences and events at the shows. She is honored to have been able to interview amazing people such as Bud Anderson, Bob Hoover, and Steve Hinton, Jr.
As a member of the ANN team this year, Maria hopes to bring a fresh perspective to Sun ‘n Fun, filling in the public with information about interesting exhibits and aircraft. Stay tuned for more of her articles coming up on ANN this summer and for years to come!
FMI: www.aero-news.net
