Good deed of the week 10/25/09

Kim Stricker has been captivated by radio control, control line and free flight model airplanes since his uncle, Wayne Stricker, taught him to fly them in 1967 in his Boaz, Ill., backyard. Kim Stricker, now 55, decided recently to fulfill his childhood fantasy of flying a small radio plane from his home in Olmsted, Ill., to his uncle's field in Boaz, 15 miles away. Instead of leaving this "silly" endeavor as a family affair, Stricker decided to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. He put up envelopes in various places and received donations from people who had heard about the stunt. His plane, called the "Little Traveler" and made of a Sterling Models' Minnie Mambo (kitted in the early 1960s) with a Cox .049 "Red Scorpion" engine and a 36 inch wingspan, made the 15.3 mile flight in 37 minutes on Oct. 10. Stricker raised more than $1,400 for St. Jude.