This program gives kids hands-on skills in the spirit of the founder of EAA, AirVenture

WAUSAU - Lily Schaefer was 12 years old when she felt the spark for welding, and she can't quite explain what compelled her to even give it a try.

"I don't remember why I started, but I do remember once I started it, ... I really enjoyed it. I wasn't perfect at first. I have my first weld at home, and it's not good," Lily said. "I came back next time and I did more, and I improved."

Lily discovered welding through Learn Build Fly, an aviation-based science, technology, engineering and math project at the Wausau Downtown Airport.

Learn Build Fly is a free, nonprofit organization for people who want to learn hands-on skills related to aviation and all the trades that make up the industry. It's open to anybody, but the focus is on children and teenagers, giving youth access to cutting-edge tools and programs used in metalworking, woodworking, flight simulation and design. Volunteer mentors teach them the skills to use them.

Partnering with the Wausau Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 640, R/C Sports, the local radio-control club, and the Wausau Downtown Airport, Learn Build Fly participants are also offered chances to learn how to fly both full-size and radio-controlled drones and planes.

Lily, who is now 14, can't say for certain what she would like to do as a career, but welding is definitely a strong contender.

When she pulls down her helmet and starts welding, "everything just stops. Like, the only thing is that red dot you're following. It's awesome."

Channeling the spirit of Paul Poberezny, founder of EAA and Oshkosh's AirVenture

The sprawling program offers a little bit of everything to tech-ed fanatics, and, more often than not, it can be anything participants want it to be. That can make it hard for Learn Build Fly advocates to explain to outsiders exactly what the program is.

At the core of the program, the group builds actual planes. So participants might be doing some woodworking that will end up as a wing strut. There is a welding corner, metal machining equipment that allows participants to build engine parts, a laser cutting and etching machine and a computer lab with laptops booted up with computer-aided design programs. The program also has two flight simulators. One runs off an Xbox. Another brand-new one has a moveable cockpit that simulates the climbs, dives and turns of a plane.

Youth can decide if they want to get involved in projects already in motion, such as helping build the plane, or they can come to the program with plans of their own, and make those a reality.

"The best thing about Learn Build Fly is there is very little structure," said Dave Conrad, president of the Learn Build Fly board. "And the worst thing is that there is very little structure."

Learn Build Fly was inspired by the soaring, can-do spirit of Paul Poberezny, the founder of the Experimental Aircraft Association and the EAA Airventure, the annual fly-in convention and aviation extravaganza held in Oshkosh.

Poberezny died on August 22, 2013, at age 91. He was in the midst of building a small plane called Baby Ace, which once graced the cover of Mechanix Illustrated. Kurt Mehre, a member of the Wausau-area EAA chapter, was a friend of Poberezny and worked with him on that plane. A short time after Poberezny's death, his family asked Mehre if he would complete the project.

Mehre was honored and enlisted the help of fellow members of the Wausau EAA chapter, including Conrad. It was about more than building an airplane. It was a way to honor Poberezny and part of his legacy was the way he encouraged and helped budding aviation buffs get into the field.

Poberezny loved to fly, loved to build and loved to share his passion, Mehre said. "If he met you in a shopping mall, and you got into a conversation and you had any interest, he'd go, 'C'mon down on Saturday and we'll show you what we're doing.'"

Mehre, Conrad and the EAA chapter members followed that example, and through social media and word of mouth, invited people, especially teens, to take part in Tuesday night build projects.

It was a stretch, but the group completed the plane in time to fly it down to Oshkosh for the 2014 Airventure.

"After we got back from Oshkosh, we thought, we've got 20 people coming down to the airport every Tuesday night. Where do we go from here?" Mehre said.

He and Conrad got together and brainstormed ideas about the future. The Baby Ace build was complete, but the concept of Learn Build Fly got started. They decided to keep building planes and inviting youth to help. Currently, Learn Build Fly is constructing a plane that organizers are calling the Wittman Legacy. The project also helps the EAA Museum repair its vintage airplanes.

Mehre was burned out from the Baby Ace build, so he asked Conrad to take the lead on the new program.

Learn Build Fly expands with financial backing from the manufacturing sector

Conrad was a natural choice because he was plugged into the Wausau area's tinkering community while working for years at a hobby store called Pope's Hobbyland, which closed in 2013. He also had connections with people in Wausau's manufacturing sector, and it wasn't long before Learn Build Fly had developed a relationship with a club of radio-controlled airplane fliers and was able to garner grant money to help purchase equipment. Conrad was also persuasive in getting people with expertise to be volunteer mentors.

Over time, learners with their own projects and interests started expanding the boundaries of Learn Build Fly. Kids who wanted to learn about small engines started showing up; now there's space for them to fix mowers, snowblowers and the like.

As interest grew, monetary donations did too, Conrad said. Business leaders see the long-term value of Learn Build Fly as a way to seed innovation and, possibly, economic development and new business leaders, Conrad said. That funding allowed Learn Build Fly to ultimately build the two hangars it uses at Wausau Downtown Airport.

The young users of the Learn Build Fly program often come to the program with an idea to build something, Mehre said.

"You have an idea? Great," Mehre said. "You can go on one of the computers and draw it up. Then you can go to the 3D printer and we can make a prototype. ... we can help you convert it into a working part. You get all the steps, from idea to something in your hand."

'It's amazing what you can do.'

Lily Schaefer not only found welding at Learn Build Fly, but she found a community, too. She's on the youth board of the program, and her two younger sisters, Thea, 11, and Hazel, 8, also are enthusiastic participants. Thea is the least interested in aviation, their mother, Jessica Schaefer said, but still finds a lot to do at Learn Build Fly get-togethers.

As enthusiastic as Lily is about welding, Hazel might be even more so about flying itself. She's been up in an airplane several times with Learn Build Fly mentors, accumulating eight flight hours by the time she turned 8. She seems destined to be a pilot.

The whole family got involved with the program shortly after they moved to the Wausau area from New Jersey a couple of years ago.

Jessica Schaefer, who has since become involved in the area's wing of the Civil Air Patrol as an assistant public affairs officer, encourages her daughters' interest in the program. But she doesn't need to push them to get involved.

"I make her come sometimes," Lily said, referring to her mother. "It's amazing what you can do when you want to do something."

Want to learn more about Learn Build Fly?

The EAA Chapter 640 will celebrate Armed Forces Day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 18 at the Downtown Wausau Airport, 620 Woods Place. In addition to offering tours of the Learn Build Fly facilities and programs, the event will feature a youth run, airplane displays, pancake breakfast and more.

Keith Uhlig is a regional features reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin based in Wausau. Contact him at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram or on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Learn Build Fly offers STEM education with a center on aviation