Walking across the stage at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Space Camp graduation Friday, the possibilities before the two were endless. Possibilities they might not otherwise have seen growing up in Meadow Bridge, West Virginia, where the population is less than 400, at least a quarter of which lives below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
And it’s all thanks to Russ Dunford, U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville’s chief of strategic plans and integration, his family and the kind generosity of others.
“This could open up new doors for him,” Melissa Neal, Jayce’s mom, said of his trip to Space Camp. “He already wants to be in the military. This is something completely different that he could also do with that military training and experience. He’s got ADHD – everybody always overlooks him when it comes to certain things. This is a big, big opportunity for him to get to do something like this. It means a lot to him and to us. I hope this opens his eyes and he realizes that he can do it. I hope that he can see that just because I have a little trouble in school doesn’t mean I can’t step out of my box and achieve what I want to do.”
Nichols is the first girl to attend Space Camp from Meadow Bridge Elementary. According to Dunford, she was selected for the Math Team and it made her day. “This young lady gets math.”
“Her team designed and built rockets, and hers was the one that worked 100 percent as designed,” Dunford said.
The idea for sending students from his hometown to Space Camp started with a Christmas present. In December 2015, rather than receiving a gift from his family, Dunford decided it was better to give than receive, and asked that they instead send a student from his hometown in West Virginia to Space Camp. The family did just that in summer 2016, and garnered so much attention and support that they were able to create the Failure is Not an Option Scholarship Fund at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, which now provides a male and female student from Meadow Bridge Elementary School with the opportunity to attend Space Camp, at no expense to them, the summer of their fifth-grade year.
“They don’t even know this place exists. I did not even know it existed until 2003.” said Dunford. “As far as they’re concerned, the only things south of West Virginia are Myrtle Beach and Disney World. They don’t even know the opportunities that are there. The old saying goes, ‘If the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.’ That’s the way we all are. We don’t know what we don’t know. This experience opens their eyes to a totally different world.”
Located in the heart of coal-mining country, Dunford describes his hometown as “the closest thing to a Depression-era area you’ll find due to the shift in energy sources away from coal” despite West Virginia – think Homer Hickam, Chuck Yeager … and hopefully a future Meadow Bridge Elementary alumni – being known as “the birthplace of some who helped put mankind on the moon.”
Each fall Dunford takes personal leave and visits the school to talk to the students about where his choices, perseverance, mentors and tenacity have taken him, and to open their eyes to the opportunities available to them outside the coal and timber mining industries. In his conversation with the kids, he leans heavily on his mantra, “Failure is not an option,” which he picked up both from his brother and the movie “Apollo 13.”
“What I try to tell the kids is when I say, ‘Failure is not an option,’ my intent is not that you’re never going to fail. In fact, I hope you fail,” Dunford said.
“Because if you’re not failing, you’re not trying. If you’re not breaking something, you’re not trying. You’re going to meet kids who can run faster, jump higher, they might even be smarter than you. If you learn from that, you’re moving forward. When I say, ‘Failure is not an option,’ what I mean by that is the acceptance of the failure is really not the option. You don’t just stop after that.”
To apply for the scholarship, students are asked to write an essay on “What ‘Failure is Not an Option’ means to space exploration and my goals.”
“My goals and the goals of space exploration are one and the same. I want to do as much as I can and go as far as I can in life,” Neal wrote in his essay.
“Space exploration also wants to do the same thing for our country and the scientific community. We will work hard and try again if needed. Neither I, nor space exploration, will fail because to fail meant we gave up, and that is the true definition of failure.”
From July 2-7 Neal and Nichols trained like astronauts, traveled to space on simulated missions, and engineered their way through various challenges, all designed to show them the career possibilities that await them in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. The 1/6th Gravity Chair was Neal’s favorite part of the week.
The scholarship recipients join the Space Camp family, some 750,000 graduates worldwide who have come through the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s doors. U.S. Space & Rocket Center CEO Deborah Barnhart told the graduates Friday that it doesn’t necessarily matter if they pursue a career in space – one Space Camp graduate is a Metropolitan Opera singer after all – but rather, that they know the possibilities available to them.
“We now know you have seen your own future through your own eyes,” Barnhart said at Space Camp graduation. “We’ve cracked your cosmic egg.”
That is the whole point of the scholarship program, Dunford said “When they leave here I hope they see the value of education and where education can get them,” Dunford said. “If it plants that seed then we’re a success.”
Editor’s note: Donations to the Failure Is Not An Option Scholarships may be made here, or by calling 256.457.5355. The goal is to eventually expand the scholarship program to other schools in the Appalachian region.