( BRB 665 )
Greetings to all of our Birmingham Rocket Boys Club Officers, Members, Friends, and Sponsors. As we close out the 2024 year, please join us in celebrating our rocket club’s 20th Anniversary. With encouragement from Larry Richardson (BOEING AEROSPACE), Clayton Sherrod (ENERGEN CORPORATION), and with counsel, prayer, and blessings from Pastor Willie B. O’Neal (Mt. Canaan Full Gospel Church), Founders Ronald Witherspoon and Trennon Nickerson, set out to organize a Birmingham, Alabama rocket club for kids. Our special thanks go out to Chuck Pierce and Vince Huegele (NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center) who assisted us in becoming a registered Chartered Section of the National Association of Rocketry (BRB 665), and in obtaining a Certificate of Waiver from the FAA allowing us to launch our rockets within controlled airspace. Our special thanks go out to Mayor Randall Woodfin (City of Birmingham), and his predecessors, who for the past 20 years have permitted us to use the City of Birmingham’s New Georgia Landfill as our club’s official launch site. Through the use of the city’s landfill as a launch site, our club has hosted and assisted several city and county schools, and area scouts with their assigned rocketry projects. Also we have hosted and assisted college students from Huntsville, Alabama with their “Student Launch Initiative (SLI) Program. Our most notable use of the city’s landfill site was the 2021 Team America Rocketry Challenge Finals, where our club was asked to be a co-host for this national event. FOX 6 and Channel 13 News covered this event which was a big success.
To our many club sponsors and supporters, we say thank you for helping us fulfill our goal of “introducing youth to the wonderful world of science and space through model rocketry.” Homer Hickam, (Retired NASA Engineer and New York Times Best Selling Author), after reading his book “Rocket Boys,” and watching the movie “October Sky,” about his life, Founder Ronald Witherspoon was inspired to name their newly formed club the “Birmingham Rocket Boys.” After meeting Homer and his lovely wife Linda in 2004 at a book signing in Guntersville, Alabama, they have become one of our club’s major sponsors, supporters, and close friends. The Hickam’s have donated money to purchase our club’s launch equipment, attended several of our club’s events, and in 2007 Homer wrote a feature BRB article, “Where Spirits and Rockets Soar,” which was published in the Nationally Syndicated “Parade Magazine,” that garnered our club national recognition. THE BOEING COMPANY, THE AEROSPACE DEVELOPMENT CENTER, THE ENERGEN CORPORATION, CHEF CLAYTON’S FOOD SYSTEMS, ALACOM FINANCE, THE MODEL BOX, Homewood Toy & Hobby, Oak Mountain Hobbies, HobbyTown USA, and Spivey’s Crafts Hobbies Toys & Gifts, all of these companies mentioned here over the years have been sponsors of our club and have been a great resource in helping us to be successful. As we prepare to elect new BRB club officers for the 2025 new year, we say thank you and well done to our 2024 BRB Club Officers Bobby Campbell-President, Ronald Dunn-Vice President, Larry Cook-Secretary, Carol Witherspoon- Treasurer, Kim Mitchell-Advisor. In a “Special Memorial Tribute” to our BRB members who have transitioned and taken their final flight, we say rest in peace to BRB Co-Founder/President-Trennon Nickerson, Past BRB President-Suzy Kraft, Past BRB Vice President-George Gassaway and Past BRB Member and Tripoli Prefect-Lee Brock. From the Club Founder, Officers, and Members of the Birmingham Rocket Boys, we wish you and your family a Blessed, Happy, and Prosperous New Year and Godspeed….Ronald Witherspoon / Founder / BRB 665 🚀🙂®️
