Our club extended wings of hope to needy medical patients several years ago when we adopted Angel Flight as an official club service project. The nationwide organization connects medical patients who don't have the financial resources to fly to their place of treatment with willing pilots and their aircrafts.
Rotarian and club President Robert Anderson spearheaded his club's involvement in the program when he discovered for himself the program's personal rewards.
"Long ago, I began to get involved in aviation and I was looking for an excuse to fly," Anderson recalled. "I read an ad in a magazine trying to attract pilots to the Angel Flight program. I responded, and shortly thereafter found myself being briefed on how it works and was offered the opportunity to make my first flight. It was an extremely satisfying experience and it just kept going."
In the past several years, Anderson has been involved with some 30+ medical missions and, since adopting Angel Flight as one of its club service projects, the Sunrise Rotarians sponsor four flights annually. In 2002, Rotary District 6780 awarded the club with Best Service Project of the Year honors for its involvement in Angel Flight.
In addition to Anderson, club members Jim Polier, Greg Swift and Jim Davis also lend their aviation skills and aircrafts to the cause. Most trips include two-to-three stops with each pilot flying no more than 500 miles since most aircraft are single-engine planes.
A typical mission begins with Angel Flight personnel contacting pilots in certain geographic regions of the country about an upcoming trip.
"Angel Flight is very well organized," Anderson said. "They usually send emails to me with regards to flights passing through my area. When I see a flight I can fit into my schedule, I call them and tell them I can do it. At that point, Angel Flight coordinates between me and the passenger if I'm the originating pilot. Or if I'm the second part of the trip, I coordinate with the incoming pilot."
One of Anderson's most memorable missions involved an elderly gentelman from Lafayette, TN receiving cancer treatments in Texas.
"I was flying him and his wife to Dyersburg where someone would come and take him to Oklahoma and then on to Texas," Anderson recalled.
"The second pilot couldn't make the trip due to weather conditions so while we ate lunch at the airport Angel Flight pretty much rescheduled the patient's entire trip including his appointment with his doctor."
The elderly couple received free room and board at a local motel. The following day, they were taken to Oklahoma and then on to Texas where they received a weekend of free room and board due to missing their doctor's appointment.
"It was amazing to see everyone - from taxi drivers to doctors - jump in to solve this man's problem which was all weather related."