Each year, Southwest Employees involved in the Companywide Culture Committee, gather together to stuff 3,000 goodie bags full of trinkets and treats to give to our hardworking Flight Attendants and Pilots who sacrifice being home with their Family, to keep our red bellied beauties braving the skies for the Holidays.

Normally during the Thanksgiving Holidays, I stay home and earn Christmas money while my family travels.  Someone has to be at the airport to get our Customers out and back, and Southwest pays us extra to work the holiday.  However, this year was different.

It’s right there in our Mission Statement: “The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit,” and let me tell you—we take that part about Company Spirit very seriously. In fact, we take it very literally.

As I think about the 10,000-hour milestone that our Pilots have “logged” in support of Adopt-a-Pilot, I am blown away!  From what I gather, the true number of hours may even be greater since some of our Pilots didn’t track their time.  I am very proud to be one of Southwest’s Adopt-a-Pilot volunteers and I am also very proud that Southwest continues to support and grow this program

There are a lot of Southwest "urban" legends about how an amazing and unique program that serves communities all across the country came to be born.  In truth, the Adopt-a-Pilot program at Southwest Airlines was born out of a cooperative effort with the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum, the National Association of Teachers of Math, and other educational speci