Second Annual Youth Drone program excites kids in Paradise
PARADISE, Calif. — It’s not a bird or a plane, it’s a Youth Drone program in Paradise...and it started this week.
It looks like something out of Star Wars, and if so, the kids from Paradise are all young Jedis training in the art of the drone
This is the second annual Drone and R/C program for kids 11-13 years old in the town; it started during the pandemic.
"We were looking to get people outside and still keep them safe," said Scott Amick, supervisor for the Paradise Recreation and Parks District.
Amick is working with General Pacific, Inc. (GenPac) who provided the drones, and Stephen Klessel, the chief storyteller for the Rebuild Paradise Foundation.
"I’m here just to help show out so these kids what these drones can do," Klessel said.
"What we try to teach the children is that there’s an opportunity to have fun in a very well-respected profession," Amick continued. "As the drone technology continues to get better and better, there’s more and more opportunities working with police departments, fire departments, with government mapping services...you can have an entire well-respected, high-paying, professional career flying drones."
The kids can even see what their drone sees in real time, hundreds of feet in the air, with an HDMI cord connected to a large television from the drone controls. It can capture clear footage over 1,000 feet away.
The program ends on Friday and is free for survivors of the Camp Fire.
"We want to give them a perspective of the town that they live in," Amick finished. "And that perspective from the above really shows how much we are continuing to build and it also shows how much more work there is to do."
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