Daneil Meek: TSA officer AND bagpiper

An artist, a baker and a bagpiper walk into an airport.

Is that the first line of a bad funny story?

It could be. But it’s additionally a sampling of the hidden talents pursued with the aid of people who paintings at some of the nation’s airports. In a few instances, most effective their colleagues attain the blessings, however from impromptu live shows to worker art suggests, fliers across the united states of america may additionally come across some fun and diversion inside the midst of a stressful tour day.

Here’s the story I wrote approximately these talented airport employees for my At the Airport column in USATODAY.com.

When he’s no longer training for swim meets, Daniel Meek (above), the TSA administrative officer at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell Airport, plays the bagpipes (sure, in a traditional Scottish kilt) at events ranging from funerals to nearby, nearby and national regulation enforcement ceremonies. “A group of TSOs [Transportation Security Officers] are going to trip bikes to the 9-11 ten-12 months anniversary ceremonies in Washington DC, and I’m going to sign up for them with my bagpipes,” stated Meek.

Special events at Los Angeles International Airport now often consist of some tunes with the aid of a chorus of incredibly sweet-voiced TSA employees. “Our purpose is to position the human face of the TSA inside the public. Not simply the ‘Take off your shoes’ photo,” LAX Terminal Screening Manager Raul Matute advised me again in December because the institution readied for holiday performances in numerous terminals.

LAX TSA CHOIR

At Denver International Airport, the contract manager can sing opera, the CFO performs trumpet, a member of the custodial group of workers leads an in-demand mariachi band and one of the customer service volunteers is a magician. “Maybe we should begin a band or hold a selection display in the terminals each Friday,” said airport spokesperson Jenny Schiavone.

No joking round. Well, every so often.

Don Steinmetz is a veteran Phoenix police sergeant assigned to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, in which he supervises explosive-detection dogs and their police partners. “At the airport, our job is to deter, stumble on and preserve human beings secure,” says Steinmetz. Outside the airport, Steinmetz plays at the stand-up comedy circuit, wherein his activity is to make humans giggle. “At the airport there are thousands of humans and so many various situations. So there are masses of hilarious things I can speak approximately from a police officer’s point of view.”

Kelly McCarron, a JetBlue employee at San Francisco International Airport, also moonlights as a stand-up comedian. She interacts with the general public at ticket-counters and gates all day however, unlike Steinmetz, doesn’t positioned many work tales into her act. “People in the target audience have usually been on the alternative aspect of the airport interaction and I’m normally within the role of the bad man. So it’s tough to get them on my side.”

On the serious facet, Debbie Ramirez, spends her days advertising and marketing and selling Phoenix Sky Harbor. But in her spare time, she and her horses are on-name for the posse that facilitates with seek and rescue efforts for the Maricopa County sheriff’s office. “People exit trekking inside the mountains and wander away or in problem,” says Ramirez. “We’ve rescued lots of human beings, but once in a while we are able to best assist households find closure.”

Aerobatics and other art

When he’s not on the process, Mark Leutwiler, the Security Operations Manager at Portland International Airport (PDX) can be discovered up within the air practicing aerobatic art. “When I changed into younger I went flying with someone and we went the other way up. That’s once I found out that’s what I need to do. Now I fly loops and rolls and spins as plenty as viable.”

One of Leutwiler’s co-workers, Pauline Nelson, oversees security get admission to for a lot of the terminal building and de-stresses via cooking, baking and constructing decorated desserts. She’s taken first prize on the Oregon State Fair severa instances, but it could be her co-people who obtain the rewards. “Basically, there aren’t sufficient people in my household to eat all of the things I prepare dinner,” said Nelson, “So I bring matters to work all the time.”

Reno-Tahoe International Airport hosts an annual Employee Art Show and this year the showcase featured about a hundred paintings, works on paper, pictures, sculptures, crafts and mixed media entries by way of 59 airport employees and their family contributors. Similar art indicates, supported by using the National Arts Program are held frequently at airports in Orlando, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Dallas-Fort Worth.

And even as Boston Logan International Airport has an official photographer, airport spokesman Richard Walsh calls landside operations manager Rudy Chiarello “the airport’s reliable, unofficial photographer.” Chiarello has been a Massport worker for 35 years and has accrued thousands of snap shots, a lot of them of airplanes taken from out at the airfield. “I changed into one of those folks who thought my snap shots sucked,” stated Chiarello, “But after 11th of September, I wanted to promote aviation so I began uploading my pix to airliners.internet and got super responses. I never knew humans would be so crazy approximately airline pics.”

Then there’s Art Cozart, who has labored as a luggage handler for US Airways at Charlotte Douglas International Airport for the past 29 years. “About ten years ago I had coffee within the destroy room and drew a photo on the Styrofoam cup with a pen,” said Cozart, whose artwork education consists of a ‘filler’ elegance he took at some stage in his senior yr of high college. Cozart stored doodling and now estimates he’s blanketed approximately a thousand Styrofoam cups along with his art work.

In October 2010, a selection of Cozart’s cups had been displayed at some stage in the grand opening of Charlotte’s Mint Museum UPTOWN and now there’s a internet site offering his creations. Mostly, even though, Cozart says he just attracts cups for pals and circle of relatives and gives them away. “I’ve done animals, boats, airports, landscapes and people, along with Marilyn Monroe, The Munsters, Dale Earnhardt, and Laurel and Hardy.” As for his choice of medium? Cozart explains, “I can draw on paper if I must, however this allows preserve cups out of the landfill.”