Members of the PBY Memorial Foundation commemorated the milestones they have seen since its founding as well as the plans they’ve laid out for the future during the group’s first meeting of the year Jan. 24 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island’s CPO club.

Board member Win Stites called the meeting to order and invoked the legacies overseen by the founding members, many of whom have since passed on.

“We won’t forget our founders — sad as it may be for us to lose them, we’ll continue our work in their memory,” said Stites, as he personally listed those individuals.

“Our overall mission is to save not just the history of the PBY Catalina aircraft, but the history of naval aviation itself,” said Stites. He said one of the milestones realized was the status the foundation achieved in 2011 as an authorized naval history center.

Retired Royal Canadian Air Force Maj. Svend Raun, of Vancouver, B.C., a PBY member, introduced a guest, 2nd Lt. Angela Sargent, who works with the Royal Canadian Air Force 525 squadron in West Vancouver. Vice president Jim Siggens briefed the group on plans to host a theater buy-out night May 31 at Whidbey Playhouse, with proceeds to benefit the PBY Memorial Foundation. Siggens said that the Playhouse had done this in the past with a number of nonprofit groups.

“The theater tickets sold for this event would cover not only the night’s entertainment, but also food and beverage service for the evening,” said Siggens. He said the Playhouse seats 128, so the incentive was there to have a sell-out event.

Siggens noted the symbolism and similarities between the planned performance that night, “Man of La Mancha,” and their foundation’s own history.

“We share many things in common with Don Quixote,” said Siggens, referencing the play’s main character. “Here at PBY, do we not also have some impossible dreams we’ve tried to realize?

“We now have an airplane (the PBY Catalina static display) that others wanted to buy,” Siggens continued. “And we have a museum at our site rather than a gasoline station.”

Finance and business committee member Wil Shellenberger updated the membership on results of fundraising, noting the importance of donations to their foundation.

“We’re going to need more donations, going forward, from non-members as well as members,” he said, which raised the possibility of hosting a day at the museum just for donors.

Shellenberger also raised the issue of a downturn in visitor foot traffic at the Naval History Center since the implementation of new security procedures at Seaplane Base.

“We noticed an immediate drop-off in attendance,” said Shellenberger, while at the same time noting that, “It’s not ours to judge how they (the Navy) do security.”

Director of operations Will Stein said the group has a great deal to look forward to in 2012.

“I think we’ll have something new to exhibit every month in the museum for this year,” said Stein. “For one thing, this year marks the 70th anniversary of the commissioning of NAS Whidbey in 1942,” he said.

Having so much to look forward to means that they need volunteers at the Naval History Center more than ever, said Stein.

“Summer’s coming, and with it the possibility of lots more visitors,” Stein said. “We want to encourage people to volunteer, and invite their friends, family and colleagues to do so as well,” he said.

Next month’s meeting of the PBY Memorial Foundation will be Feb. 28 at CPO club. For information, go to www.pbymf.org