International skydiving record-holder Cheryl Stearns dropped in, literally, on two Greene County Elementary Schools on Monday.

Stearns, who resides in Charlotte, N.C., where she is an airline captain with U.S. Airways, parachuted from 3,000 feet onto the grounds of Baileyton Elementary School on Monday morning, then duplicated her jump on Monday afternoon by landing at Mosheim Elementary and Middle School.

The parachute visits by Stearns had been arranged by David Johnson, chairman of the Greene County Board of Education.

Johnson, who also is an airline captain with U.S. Airways, said he has known Stearns for many years and hoped local students would be inspired by her parachuting skills and the remarks she delivered after arriving at the local schools.

Stearns had parachuted onto the campuses of South Greene High and Chuckey-Doak Middle School and High School in November 2008.

During her visits to Baileyton Elementary School and Mosheim Elementary and Middle School, Stearns showed videos about the sport of skydiving and told students they have the opportunity to become whatever they wish to be in life if they work hard and stay in school.

Stearns noted that she made her first parachute jump at age 17 despite being fearful of flying in an airplane to make a jump.

To overcome her fear of airplanes, she said, she had taken flying lessons and had soon decided that aviation was the career for her.

"Now I fly jets all over the world," she said. "And when I'm not flying airplanes, I'm jumping out of them."

Stearns said she has completed a total of nearly 18,000 parachute jumps during a skydiving career that spans more than 30 years.

School Board Chairman Johnson said that is more than any other woman in the entire world has completed.

Stearns told the audience of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Mosheim Middle School on Monday afternoon that she takes part in a number of skydiving competitions, including accuracy competitions in which skydivers try to land directly on a 2-centimeter-diameter target.

She noted that she once hit the tiny target on 16 consecutive jumps during a competition.

The StratoQuest Web site says that Stearns is a prolific skydiving record-setter.

Among other things, the Web site notes, Stears:

* set a total of 30 world records in parachuting and, at one time, held four different world records simultaneously; a feat no other parachutist, man or woman, has matched;

* was the first female member of the U.S. Army's elite parachuting team, The Golden Knights;

* was the three-time overall women's style and accuracy champion at the military world championships (1991, 1995 and 1996);

* is the Guinness World Record holder for the most parachute jumps in 24 hours by a woman, which was 352 jumps on Nov. 8-9, 1995). During this endurance test, she added an additional challenge by aiming for a five-centimeter target on each jump. Despite the cold and wind, Cheryl hit the target a record 188 times: 104 in daytime, 84 at night.

* holds 70 more than first-place women's titles from the annual U.S. National and biannual World Championships in Parachuting and scores of medals from other national and international competitions.

* four times was the overall U.S. Champion for men and women combined, most recently in 1998.

Stearns also was awarded the Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award in 2007.

In addition, she was:

* inducted into the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame in April 2007;

* inducted into the Embry-Riddle Wall of Fame, Daytona Beach, Fla.;

* received the Wiley Post Commission's 2005 Wiley Post Spirit Award, which recognizes an aviation innovator and pioneer who does not receive government or large corporation funding;

* was 23-time U.S. Women's Parachuting Champion;

* received a specially created Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) Centenary Medal for her significant personal contribution to the development of air sports and aviation (October, 2005); and

* was awarded the Diplome Leonardo da Vinci, the world's highest award in aerosports, for her unique achievements in skydiving.