AT A GLANCE
COMMUNITY BY PJ FEINSTEIN
Local Mom Makes Air
Travel Less Stressful
for Families
If you’ve ever wished for an extra set of hands at
the airport, you’re in luck.

SkySquad (theskysquad.com) is a new
concierge service at Dulles Airport and Reagan
National Airport designed to help families get from
the ticket counter to their gate with less stress.

For $39 an hour, SkySquad assistants can
help with ticketing, preparing for security and
pushing luggage, strollers and car seats through
the airport. They can also watch your bags
as you take the kids to the bathroom or grab
something to eat before your flight.

“Airport employees are so busy doing what
they have to do, they generally don’t have extra
time to help people on an individual level,” says
SkySquad founder, Julie Melnick. “This service
allows us to help people one-on-one and just
make their airport experience much better.”
SkySquad assistants are all off-duty airport
employees, so they’ve already been background
checked, fingerprinted and badged by their
airport to get through security. They also have
childcare experience and are fluent in a variety
of languages.

When Melnick first conceived of SkySquad,
she thought the service would appeal mostly
to single moms traveling with little kids. To her
surprise, many of her customers have been
families with more than one child who simply
need a helping hand.

“This has been a passion of mine for the past
10 years, when I started traveling coast to coast
frequently with my baby and toddler,” says
Melnick, who lives with her family in Bethesda,
Maryland. “I am so excited to help the world
travel happier — starting with D.C.” T
Applications Open for
National Award Honoring
Young Heroes
The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes,
which recognizes public-spirited youth
in the U.S. and Canada, is now accepting
applications for its 2020 awards.

The Barron Prize honors 25 inspiring
Addison leaders ages 8 to 18 who are working in
Barrett creative ways to help their communities
or protect the planet. The top 15 winners
receive $10,000 to support their service
project or higher education.

“The purpose of the Barron Prize
is to showcase young heroes of all
Garyk descriptions, inspiring other young people
Brixi to take action,” says author T.A. Barron,
who founded the award in 2001, naming it
after his mother.

Two local teens were among the winners of the 2019
Barron Prize. Addison Barrett of Germantown, Maryland,
who was 11 when she won, founded Gorilla Heroes to raise
awareness and funds to help save endangered mountain
gorillas. Since 2017 she has raised more than $11,300
through fundraising, including selling homemade cookies
and lemonade, designing and selling T-shirts and organizing
an annual Gorilla Gala.

After learning about the high cost of relief food while
volunteering in Malawi, Garyk Brixi of Potomac, Maryland,
spent five years developing a less expensive option to
address malnutrition that could be produced using local
crops. “My work does not end here,” said Brixi when he won
at 18 years old. “I’ll continue striving to make nutritious food
more readily available to starving children around the world.”
To learn more about the 20th Annual Barron Prize and
apply online, visit barronprize.org. T
Looking to add some nonfiction titles to
your child’s book collection? These new
picture-book biographies take young
readers back in time as they celebrate two
inspiring, yet very different, role models.

“The Only Woman in the Photo,”
written by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by
Alexandra Bye, follows the life of Frances
Perkins, the first woman to serve in a presidential
cabinet and the mastermind behind FDR’s New Deal. A
shy and quiet girl, Perkins challenged herself
to make her voice heard in order to fight injustice and
build programs to protect people across the nation.

“Fred’s Big Feelings: The Life and Legacy of Mister
Rogers,” written by Laura Renauld and illustrated by
Brigette Barrager, tells the story of Fred Rogers through
the framework of his feelings: scared, lonely, playful,
joyful. After testifying on Capitol Hill to save government
funding for public television, including “Mister Rogers’
Neighborhood,” Rogers spent the next 30 years
teaching children that it’s normal to have feelings — and
important to share them. T
WashingtonFAMILY.com 13
YOUNG HEROES: COURTESY OF THE GLORIA
BARRON PRIZE FOR YOUNG HEROES
New Picture Books Tell Inspiring True Stories