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United Airlines hosted a flight on Thursday filled with children who've never flown before in observance of Juneteenth, Houston-based media outlets reported.
According to Houston NBC affiliate KPRC, 100 students from Houston Independent School District (HISD) and Aldine Independent School District (AISD) departed from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) aboard the legacy carrier as part of a day of aviation activities.
United pilot Xavier Samuels told Houston FOX affiliate KRIV that the "Freedom Flight" is to present an eye-opening opportunity to the youth.
"When I was 5-years-old, the first time I got on a flight, it was an exhilarating feeling," Samuels said, KRIV reported. "We want to expose to them that life is limitless for them. We know this is an opportunity for them to reach for whatever they want to do."
KPRC reported that the participating students have neither set foot inside an aircraft nor even been to an airport.
The Freedom Flight soared across the Houston-Galveston area over places with deep connections to Juneteenth, which commemorates Union General Gordon Granger's public reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston on June 19, 1865, per the station.
Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday last year.
According to KRIV, the Boeing 737 aircraft flew over Galveston, Corpus Christi and San Antonio, before landing back IAH.
"I was nervous at first," Juan Reyes, one of the students who flew for the first time, told the station. "[However], seeing as I’m in the hands of United, I have nothing to worry about."
Radio personality KG Smooth gave a narration on the history of the newest federal holiday over the flight's loudspeakers, KRIV reported.
Several pilots came along for the ride to talk about aviation with the students, per KRIV.
The young passengers took home commemorative wings, with several leaving IAH with a newfound interest in flying, the station reported.