GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.-Hundreds of special needs kids from District 51 gathered on the runway of Weststar Aviation Friday to get up close and personal with planes, helicopters and trucks from our first responders.

Westar Aviation’s Special Needs Day has been an event for more than 25 years always held during the end of April.

The event brought about 330 special needs students from the Grand Valley, and on display were extreme vehicles from the sky and streets, that included fire trucks, planes, jets, and helicopters.

The kids had the opportunity to meet with pilots and certain crews of each vehicle, plus, even get inside some of these machines for a first-person view.

For the general manager of Weststar aviation, Dave Krogman, it’s all about the kids.

“That’s the best part of it, the kids, and their faces and their smiles. they just love to get in a fire truck and get in an airplane, just to see these kind of things up close,” said Krogman.

Krogman says he gets a lot of great feedback from the students and parents who attend and plans to keep this event going in the future.