Festival brings '91 grad back
MARS — A 1991 Mars High School graduate will make a return to her hometown as an employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
April Pergl Lanotte will attend the Mars New Year on June 19 and 20 as one of many NASA employees who will attend the event.
“To actually be working with NASA and being a part of my hometown is exciting,” she said.
Lanotte works remotely for NASA from her home in Colorado. She is an educational consultant who works with NASA’s aeronautics scientists to create lessons and activities related to NASA’s projects.
Lanotte will be at an exhibit that will show what would happen to people’s bodies if they were outside of the Earth’s atmosphere in space without wearing a protective, life-supporting suit.
She explained that marshmallow Peeps are put into a vacuum chamber, where they puff up dramatically without any intervention other than the vacuum conditions.
“That’s actually what would happen to us if we were up in space without a suit on,” she said.
She recalled growing up in the Mars School District and attending an event where an astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut were brought to Mars. Lanotte won an essay contest, which earned her a meeting with the two men.
“That’s one of the reasons that I couldn’t miss coming back for the (Mars New Year,)” Lanotte said. “That’s what fueled my excitement about space exploration.”
About two years ago, she met that astronaut, Mario Runco, and mentioned the event in Mars when he and a cosmonaut came to the school.
“It flipped a switch, and he said ‘Oh my gosh, I remember that,’” Lanotte said.
She said Runco has been in space several times since his visit to the school district.
Lanotte, whose family still lives in Mars, plans to take her 5-year-old daughter to the miniature golf course on Route 228 across from the Mars Primary Center.
“We used to walk there when we were little,” Lanotte said.
She looks forward to her trip home.
“It’s super exciting,” Lanotte said, “and kind of fun to combine what I do now with my hometown.”
