This year's government shut down has been the longest in United States History leaving many families without pay for the entirety. Some people affected by this, even continue to work despite getting paid on time, like air traffic controllers, TSA, Coast Guard, etc.
This past weekend Canadian air traffic controllers (ATC) sent over some dough to their American counterparts affected by this shutdown, pizza dough that is.
It started on Thursday, when Canadian Air Traffic Control Association's (CATCA) controllers in Edmonton, Alberta came up with the idea of sending pizza to their neighboring counterparts in Anchorage, Alaska.
This simple act of kindness spread all across the border, multiple Canadian control centers began sending pizza to the US centers that they share the airspace with. It didn't stop with shared airspace, some units shared with others in the US based off of shared similarities too. For an example, Fort McMurry in Alberta, had a pizza delivered to El Paso, Texas, because both are oil towns.
ATCs from Moncton, N.B. and Gander, Nfld. sent pizzas to the NY Air Traffic Control Center in Ronkonkoma, NY.
Montreal Centre ➡️🍕 to Boston Center.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport ➡️🍕to Burlington, Vermont, AND LaGuardia, NY.
Toronto Centre ➡️🍕 to Cleveland.
Vancouver ➡️🍕to Seattle.
"In the big scheme of things, sending some pizza to people that are missing paychecks is a small gesture... but the message that it sends them is a big gesture." says, Peter Duffey, the president of the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association.
Since Thursday, this heartwarming small act of kindness has brought 350 pizzas across the border to 49 Federal Aviation Administration centers and the number is very likely to continue to grow.
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