Regular readers of this blog know that I’m not only an aviation journalist, but I’m a 100% certified aviation geek (#avgeek). I love this industry and do what I can to promote #avgeeks everywhere. I’m also a big fan of Kickstarter, which is a crowdfunding website that helps people fund their dreams. I have contributed to six of them, and all of them have been funded.
So today, I’m promoting the seventh Kickstarter I’m supporting. I received an email from Paul Ruccio, the creator of Jetsetter Playing Cards, which is “a limited edition deck of playing cards inspired by airport signs that we all have driven by one day or another.” He asked if I would give a few tweets or a blog post on his plan to offer playing cards for #avgeeks.
I wrote him back and said if he gave me a compelling pitch on why I should, I’d support him. Here’s what he wrote:
“Honestly, the story is twofold. Both aviation and playing cards have been such a huge part of my life ever since I was a little kid. I wanted to bring both of my passions together. When I was younger, my parents took me to every local airshow and always took me to watch airplanes takeoff and land at our local airports. One of the biggest but simplest things I remember was the green airport signs when we were driving to the airports. To this day, when I see those signs when I travel for work – it really takes me back to being a kid and spending time with my family. You can saw I get giddy, even at 30 years old. 22 months ago, my wife and I had a baby boy. Guess what he loves? Airplanes… with no influence from my wife and I (he even sits and watches the entire IMAX Boeing documentary on Netflix… and enjoys it as if it was a Disney movie). We’ve started doing the same with him and it bring so much joy to him to go to the airport and just watch the activity of the planes. Even at home, he hears an airplane fly over and he runs to the windows and says “Airplane!”
Ruccio did, so not only am I giving him his post and tweets, I also pledged $20 toward his Kickstarter. And I hope you’ll do the same. He’s got a tough row to hoe — although he has 96 backers and $2667 in pledges, he has only 16 more days to reach his goal of $12,000. So I hope you’ll consider helping out a fellow #avgeek. Pledges range from $1.00 to $800, so there’s something for every budget. I appreciate it, and I’m sure Paul will too!