Teaching has been in Chris Naccarato ’ s blood since before he was born . With his dad a principal and mom a teacher , the passion to teach was practically written into his DNA . And that ’ s just what he has been doing these past 32 years — inspiring students to dream big and never be afraid to chase their goals with his National Astronaut in the Classroom Association ( NACA ).
Walk into Naccarato ’ s fifth grade classroom in Priest River , Idaho , and you ’ ll feel like you ’ ve leapt into space . Students wearing ash gray t-shirts will be hard at work creating rockets , landing plans and flight routes , amidst endless artworks of outer space .
Those ash gray shirts represent a turning point in Naccarato ’ s life — the day his eighth grade dreams were crushed .
Little did young Naccarato know that the eruption of Mount Saint Helens and a canceled rocket launch would pave the way for one of the most popular school programs in North Idaho .
Over a decade later , Naccarato stood before his students in his first year of teaching , recalling the events of the eruption and how it destroyed his chance at flying rockets .
They replied , “ We have a huge field for a playground , why can ’ t we make up for your missed launch right now ?” A few days later , rockets were soaring and [ have ] continued to do so for the next 31 years .
A few days after his first rocket launch , Naccarato brought in old memorabilia for his class to see .
“ I found a small card from the Boy Scouts that said my name had been flown into space ... Once again , their reply was simply , ‘ Can we do that like you did ?’ So we wrote to NASA and made a connection that has led us to having 50 astronaut appearances from 25 different astronauts .”
That letter to NASA inspired Naccarato to create NACA . Naccarato had seen that other schools were launching rockets but noticed that those demonstrations weren ’ t very hands-on .
WINTER 2024 — ISSUE NO . 05 29