In the News

By Karen McBride Angel Flight is part of the Air Charity Network and is known as Mercy Flight in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina. The organization has been around for 27 years. Steve Purello, CEO and Chairman of Angel Flight Southeast, had been an Angel Flight Northeast pilot for more than six years before moving to Florida. He had learned about it from a brochure left at one of the airports he would frequent. He was pleased to find out there was an Angel Flight Southeast, so that he could continue with his volunteer work. “It makes you feel good to help someone in need,” says Purello. Airports all over Florida are used. Tampa Executive is the primary airport in our area. Recently, a military veteran, who had vision problems, was flown from Tampa to a VA hospital in West Palm for treatment. In addition to medical assistance, classes are held at the facility to teach sight impaired veterans how to live in a sightless world. Last month, Angel Flight SE volunteers were at Peter O. Knight airport. An infant needed to be transported to a hospital in Miami for a liver transplant. Another patient with a severe blood disorder was flown from Dustin to All Children’s hospital. Pilots with 250 PIC hours are encouraged to apply to be a volunteer. In addition to helping people get to their medical appointments, Angel Flight SE helps during times of disaster. Working under a special agreement with the U.S. government and the Corporation for National and Community Service, Angel Flight pilots completed hundreds of missions after 9/11, and hurricanes Katrina and Andrew. The missions included transporting personnel and small cargo. Thirty seven trips have been made to the Bahamas, transporting volunteers to aid Bahamas Habitat, an organization that provides housing to people in need. The Tampa Bay Area Wing holds its monthly meeting at The Hangar Restaurant, Albert Whitted Airport, 540 1st Street SE, in St. Petersburg, FL (KSPG) on the third Wednesday of every month from 6:30 pm-8:30 pm. In November Bill Shivers held a program on Upset Recognition and Recovery and discussed reinvigorating the Tampa Bay Area Wing. Mr. Shivers can be reached at 727-385-9942 or via email: wnshivers@aol.com. In addition to pilots, ground volunteers, called Earth Angels, are vital to the success of this organization. Driving patients to/from the airport (or hospital) are among their many responsibilities. Contacting hospitals to send out brochures, coordinating missions and making presentations at meetings to let people know what they are doing and to encourage volunteers to join them in their efforts are key to the continued success of this special organization. Tampa Wing Leader, Bill Shivers has been a volunteer pilot for the past 6 years. “Volunteers are so important to the success of the missions. We can’t help if caregivers don’t know about Angel Flight,” says Shivers. Patients learn about Angel Flight Southeast through the hospital’s social workers. In order to qualify for the free air transport, patients must show that the distance to the medical facility is too far to drive, and show a financial need to eliminate the ability to take a commercial flight. Patients must be able to sit upright during the flight. “Another major benefit from using Angel Flight is that patients can have oxygen tanks, and you can’t have them on commercial flights”, said Shivers. Families receiving help from Ronald McDonald charities or Shriners Hospital are also eligible. This organization is funded by donations and a vast majority of those donations are from the pilots themselves. These men and women not only volunteer their time, but donate the use of their airplanes, including fuel. For every $1 donated, they give $5 in services, which is unlike other organizations, where it is usually pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, this program is not funded by the government, so donations are needed to keep this organization going. People can go online to www.mercymiles.org and donate to a specific mission. Missions scheduled over the next 90 days. Choose a mission and the number of miles and donate $1 per mile. On the day of the flight, you can see the mission in real time (when the plane takes off and when it lands). Fund raising events are held, such as the Texas Hold’em tournament that was held in November. This professional poker style tournament was very successful. Tickets were $60 which included $40 in player’s chips. Another card playing event and a golf tournament are in the planning stages to be held in the Tampa area. At the time of this publication, the venues had not been confirmed, so be sure to check the website for details. Most missions come from the facilitators at the hospitals, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation. Referrals are received from Corporate Angel Network and AirLifeLine. Flights must be scheduled 5 working days in advance. Emergency flights may be scheduled with less than 5 days for transplant recipients, but must be made by the Transplant Coordinator. Patients in need of medical care are not the only ones who need Angel Flight Southeast. Victims of abuse have used their services to relocate. Angel Flight Southeast has over 650 volunteer pilots that have clocked over 1,500 missions per year. Whether you are in need of transportation to get medical assistance, help during a disaster, or need volunteers to build homes for the less fortunate, it is good to know there truly are angels on earth, and in the sky. For more information, go to www.angelflightse.org or call 800-352-4256.

Posted: Sunday, December 11, 2011 8:00 am By Jessica Greene, Daily Sun THE VILLAGES — Thanks to Angel Flight and a special VA program, Village of Del Mar resident and World War II veteran Dick Egan touched a passion and celebrated two milestones this past Tuesday. Just after 4 p.m. he stepped out of Steve Purello’s Cessna Skyline and was welcomed by a group of friends and family, as well as his dog Max. Egan’s adventure actually started five weeks earlier when he was flown free of charge to the West Palm Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center. During his stay there, Egan participated in the facility’s blind rehabilitation program. http://www.thevillagesdailysun.com/news/villages/article_2236b802-247c-11e1-9b1a-001871e3ce6c.html Seeing isn’t always believing The West Palm Beach VA Hospital has helped visually impaired vets adjust to life without sight for the past 11 years. A 15-bed wing, located on the seventh floor of the gigantic facility, reteaches patients like Egan to get dressed, shop, cook, take care of laundry and even operate woodshop tools. “The goal is to build up their self-esteem so they can live a quality life,” said Zaskia Diaz-Marrero, chief of Blind Rehab Services for the West Palm Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “Basically, the only thing a visually impaired person cannot do is drive,” she added while standing at the center of a woodshop. Here, she explained, participants use saws and other tools to create a picture frame that is later used to hold the certificate they receive for completing the program. The room is just one of many designed to help visually impaired veterans keep their independence by demonstrating their capabilities without sight. In addition to the woodshop, a laundry room and a kitchen, the blind rehab wing houses a study where patients learn to operate new technology that allows them to read books, use the computer, scanners and more. In the hall just outside the woodshop, a man with dark sunglasses hesitantly navigated the walkway as visitors, nurses and staff hustled around. But he wasn’t alone. Just a few paces away, one of the facility’s mobility instructors offered guidance and words of encouragement. Just around the corner in the dorm-like room where he stayed for the past five weeks, Egan anxiously awaited his ride home. “I feel this is a great place,” Egan said as his mobility instructor Karen Lyman helped him gather his bags. “You get one-on-one instruction here — you’re not in a class with 15 other people. I’m very pleased with the people who work here,” he said. As he walked past the large reception area on his way to the elevator, staff members bid him pleasant goodbyes and wished him well. Last fiscal year the center catered to the needs of 153 veterans, and sent them home with an array of tools to make their life easier. However, Diaz-Marrero said the VA has help when it comes to making life easier for visually impaired vets. “We would not be able to have that many patients if it wasn’t for Angel Flight,” she said. Last year, 56 of the 153 patients the center served were transported there at no charge by Angel Flight. “People don’t realize all the good Angel Flight does — these pilots volunteering their aircraft and their time,” Egan said. Taking flight In fact, getting the word out is something at which Egan’s pilot, Angel Flight CEO Steve Purello is working hard. Angel Flight Southeast provides free air transportation to medical facilities for those who qualify and is one of many charitable aviation organizations that make up the Air Charity Network. The most common service Angel Flight Southeast offers is transportation for cancer patients to and from chemo/radiation treatments that aren’t within driving distance, Purello said, as he guided the plane through a thicket of clouds on the way back to Leesburg. Guided by instruments, Purello chatted with Egan — who relaxed in the plane’s back seat — and Angel Flight volunteer Tom Rockwood, who joined the mission. Purello paused the conversation occasionally to focus on incoming communication from area control towers. Much like flying is the convergence of knowledge and skill, Angel Flight Southeast tends to many things all at once to make each mission a success. Recruiting pilots. Flying missions. Working with medical facilities. Fundraising and more. In fact, during the last four weeks, Angel Flight transported three organ-donor recipients to medical facilities within its six-state region; 53 others are waiting in the wings, and Angel Flight pilots are lined up to be on the ready at a moment’s notice. “(Hospitals) basically say (to donor recipients), ‘You have three hours to get here,’” Purello said. Angel Flight makes that happen. Last year the organization provided roughly $1 million in transportation services to people like Egan thanks to volunteer pilots who donate their time, aircraft and fuel. “Because of that, If you give us a dollar, we end up giving five dollars back,” Purello said. Ongoing assistance The VA has 12 other blind rehabilitation centers like the West Palm Beach facility located throughout the United States. And while patients like Egan leave the facility after a few weeks, they don’t leave the program. “We never drop the ball — once we have them, we don’t let go,” Diaz-Marrero said. Blind rehabilitation outpatient specialists visit the homes of each participant to help put in place some of the techniques that are taught at the center, such as placing sandpaper or other tactile indicators on appliance knobs, creating systems of organization for kitchen goods and more. In fact, any day now Egan will receive a package from the VA containing the specialized tools — such as a device that allows him to pour a drink without spilling, a knife that will cut meat and produce without cutting his skin, a closed-captioned television set — on which he was trained. The blind rehabilitation program is available to any visually impaired veteran who qualifies, Diaz-Marrero said. “If you have a visual impairment, contact your VIS coordinator — it’s amazing what the VA can do for the visually impaired,” she said. Egan would agree. “Any vet that has the opportunity to do this should take it,” he said. Egan’s vision started to wane significantly in 2000 due to macular degeneration. In 2005 Egan passed his Florida driver’s license test conditionally. The next year he failed. Despite an earlier recommendation to attend the blind rehabilitation program, Egan didn’t go immediately. “I held back because I thought I didn’t need it — until I got here,” he said. “People don’t realize how much you depend on your sight until you don’t have it.” A warm welcome As a former general aviation pilot, even though Egan wasn’t flying the plane himself, he enjoyed being skybound. On the trip home, among other things, Purello and Egan chatted about the changes local aviators have seen since the veteran began flying his plane out of Leesburg in 1977. “I sure miss it,” Egan said of flying. One thing friends and family made sure Egan wouldn’t miss, however, was the chance to celebrate his 95th birthday, which took place Nov 29 while he was away. After an hour and a half in the air, Purello set the plane gently down on the runway. “I think there are some people here who are expecting you,” he said to Egan as he taxied the plane toward the airport’s hangars. Then, armed with new skills and confidence, the World War II vet was off for a belated birthday party. Jessica Greene is a reporter with the Daily Sun. She can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 7759, orjessica.greene@thevillagesmedia.com

KISSIMMEE, FL – October XX, 2011 – James Jordan of Cocoa, Florida will be the envy of pilots everywhere today as he suits up for a one hour flight behind the controls of a vintage WWII era P-51 Mustang. Mr. Jordan won the once-in-a-lifetime experience as part of a raffle benefitting Angel Flight Southeast, a 27-year-old volunteer pilot organization that coordinates free air transportation for children and adults with medical or compelling humanitarian needs.

“This is a dream come true for me,” said Mr. Jordan. “As a private pilot, I still believe the P-51 is one of the most beautiful and powerful airplanes to ever take to the skies. And as a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight Southeast, I am so proud to contribute to such an important organization.”

Valued at $3,500 and donated by Stallion 51 Corporation, Angel Flight Southeast raffled off the P-51 Mustang “Crazy Horse” package at the AOPA Convention in Hartford, CT on September 23, 2011. The raffle was open to all conference attendees and raised $XX for Angel Flight Southeast.

The P-51 Mustang “Crazy Horse” package includes a day long experience at Stallion 51’s operational headquarters in Kissimmee, Florida courtesy of Stallion 51 Corporation. It will feature pre-and-post-flight briefings, cockpit orientation, a one-hour hands-on orientation flight in a dual control cockpit P-51 Mustang, and video documentation of the entire flight.

About Mr. Jordan
James T. Jordan is an accomplished engineer of 32 years. For the majority of his career, he has worked as a defense contractor processing satellites for the United States Air Force at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. He has been a licensed private pilot for the past 20 years, and his flight experience includes 2,000 hours in aircraft ranging from Cessna 150s to Beechcraft Queen Airs. He is the proud owner of a 1975 Piper Cherokee Six that he uses for his volunteer work with Angel Flight Southeast. Mr. Jordan earned his B.S. in Physics from Jacksonville University and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Florida.

About Angel Flight Southeast
Angel Flight Southeast has coordinated free general aviation flights for children, families and veterans in need of treatment at distant medical facilities for over 27 years. Funds raised support their mission and assist in coordinating over 3,000 free flights each year.

About Stallion 51 Corporation
Stallion 51 is a comprehensive aviation organization offering a wide range of services in historic aircraft including orientation flights in the legendary dual cockpit, dual control P-51 Mustang and historic T-6 Texan. Stallion 51 offers check-out and re-currency training, FAA Medical certification, aircraft sales and management. Stallion 51 has been a leader in WWII aviation for 25 years; bringing quality, safety, integrity and experience to aviation. For further information regarding Stallion 51 Corporation; contact KT Budde-Jones at 407-846-4400 or kt@stallion51.com

Media Contact:
Steve Purello
(352) 326-0761
Steve.Purello@MercyMail.org

For Immediate Release

Angel Flight™ Southeast launched it 1st Annual Aviation Charity Auction earlier this week, which is being held on the Ebay Charity Auction website. Dozens of aviation vendors stepped up to provide items for this first time event. Items donated span the spectrum from high end pilot headsets to left seat time in a McDonald Douglas DC-3. Examples of other items include GPS receivers, VHF radios, aviation flashlights, aircraft landing/taxi lights, seaplane rating vouchers, aviator sunglasses, aerial photography, aerobatic plane rides and front seat time in a World War II, 1941 open cockpit bi-plane Stearman made by Boeing. Items will have a seven day run time on Ebay from the date they are listed and 100% of the proceeds benefit Angel Flight™ Southeast. Items will continue to be listed for the next several days, and items are still being accepted for donation.

“Angel Flight™ Southeast coordinates free air transportation for children and adults with medical or compelling humanitarian needs” says Blake Mathis, President/CEO of the charity. “For over 26 years, we have been recruiting volunteer pilots who have a caring heart and want to help those in need by using general aviation to help”, he added. Volunteer pilots donate their time, their planes and provide the fuel to get these families to distant medical specialists. Humanitarian missions are also approved by the operations staff located in Leesburg, Florida. Transporting victims from earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters, as well as other non-medical flights such as assisting veterans, battered spouses and visually impaired passengers to get to and from a destination is also a part of our mission.

Angel Flight™ Southeast currently helps coordinates between 3000-4000 free missions each year for families in need. Funds raised assist in running the operations headquarters where a few staff members and dozens of volunteers take hundreds of calls weekly from families in need.

“The Online Aviation Charity Auction is a first of its kind for charity. We have been overwhelmed at the support we have received from the aviation vendor community who are willing to help”, says Mathis. Items and corporate sponsors of the event can be located at the website, www.AngelFlightAuction.org Angel Flight™ Southeast, along with partner regions, which are all members of the Air Charity Network, cover the entire United States to provide transportation assistance for those in need. For more information about using the free service, or to learn how to become a volunteer, visit www.AngelFlightSE.org

Angel Flight™ Southeast Media/Corporate Contact:
352-326-0761
Info@MercyMail.org
1St Annual Online Aviation Charity Auction “Takes Off” for Angel Flight™ Southeast
www.AngelFlightAuction.org