Dick Fijlstra named Recipient of 2022 Carole Perry Educator of the Year Award
Hamcation is excited to announce Dick Fijlstra, PA0DFN as the 2022 recipient of the Carole Perry Educator of the Year Award. This award is bestowed upon an individual who has made an outstanding contribution educating and advancing youth in Amateur Radio. It was first awarded in 2018 to its namesake, Carole Perry, WB2MGP, in honor of her work as an educator teaching student about ham radio.
Dick is our first international winner of the Carole Perry Educator of the Year Award. Dick is a Dutch native and a retired principal. He has been working for years to reach youth with the latest technology to connect them to Ham Radio. He has an Extra Class license for over forty years. At Ham events he is helping young kids merge and solder radio parts as small learning projects. He guides groups of other hams to assist the youth to finish the projects the right way.
He is also the organizer of international school projects: Communication Helps International Progress "CHIP". Participating schools in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Hungary, Latvia, Sweden, Denmark, England, and Ukraine.
Dick is also the Dutch representative of the VERON (the national organization of Ham Operators) in the Region I IARU ARDF committee (Amateur Radio Direction Finding). This group is focused on the European Youth ARDF Championships on Fox hunting for teens from fourteen to nineteen years old.
Orlando Hamcation has been sponsored by the Orlando Amateur Radio Club since 1946 which is held annually on the second weekend of February. HamCation has grown to become the second largest hamfest in the world. Attendance has grown an average of 1500 people for the past 8 years1 with fast year's event having 24,200 attendees. HamCation 2022 is February 11-13, 2022.