EAST FARMINGDALE — Bethpage Federal Credit Union chose 10 aviation enthusiasts and their families to meet the GEICO Skytypers after winning a contest on Facebook. The GEICO Skytypers fly in air shows all over the world, creating messages at 10,000 feet in the air. Pilot Tom Daly pointed out that skytyping consists of five airplanes creating words in a dot matrix-like form, whereas skywriting involves one aircraft creating individual letters to form words.

Participants entered the photo contest, "My First Flight," or the essay contest, "Recognizing Our Veterans," with five winners chosen from each.