Sydney loves on Rooney, a certified seizure alert dog and devoted pet. Now 11, Sydney suffers from Dravet's Syndrome and ataxia, and has flown 14 times with Angel Flight to receive treatment at Children's Chicago Memorial Hospital.

2011 was an extraordinary year for Mercy Medical Airlift in terms of service. We provided assistance and charitable trips for 23,490 clients. Commercial airline flights numbered 9,714; Angel Flights, 832; air ambulance flights, 44; and Angel Bus, 1,802. The National Patient Travel Center processed 11,089 calls and emails.

Included in these figures are those for our military-related program, Air Compassion for Veterans (ACV). From its founding in November 2006 until the end of December 2011, ACV provided 24,046 flights, and of those, 13,615 were  for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

We know the need for access to distant medical care is great and growing. At a staff meeting a couple of days ago, Cathy Kelly, who coordinates commercial airline flights, mentioned that the calls for requests had increased to 35-40 each day. Our Angel Flight mission coordinator, MJ Sablan, also attests to heavier call volume in recent days. “It’s hard to get my paperwork done because the phones never stop ringing,” she said. MJ averages 20-25 calls each day from patients, case workers and others requesting Angel Flights.

Each area of operations is experiencing the same trend. The folks here at MMA have never worked harder, and once again, the numbers tell the story. For the year 2010, we reported service to 22,256 clients; the year before that, to 21,003 clients. We are blessed to be able to help more and more patients and veterans every year.

But the recession is taking its toll on nonprofit organizations like Mercy Medical Airlift.

According to the website of the Barna Group, a leading research organization, “In the wake of the poor economy, many American donors have cut back on donations to churches and especially to other non-profit organizations, and they have become more pessimistic about the future of economic recovery…The findings are based upon a nationwide sample of 1,008 American adults, conducted in January and early February, 2010.”

Here at MMA we are experiencing a decline in contributions. We are doing more with less. But two things remain constant—our commitment to our mission—that no one in need is left medically stranded—and our insistence on conducting our affairs with integrity and transparency. You can find our financial statements on our website (http://mercymedical.org/about-us/financials/). You can visit www.CharityNavigator.org and search for Mercy Medical Airlift and see why we’ve earned the top 4-Star rating.

But what speaks louder than statistics and ratings and all the quantitative data collected daily and over time are the words from patients and families whose lives have been saved or transformed. “Thank you, Mercy Medical Airlift. I could never have done it without you. Thanks to you we still have my daughter with us.” “I cannot tell you how much help that was to us (free flight to MD Anderson) with all the other unavoidable expenses and stresses related to cancer.” “When a soldier becomes wounded, the family becomes wounded. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be with my son once again.”

We invite you to become a partner in our life-giving mission. Through your generous financial support, we can continue making the world better, one patient at a time.

www.MercyMedical.org/Give.

photo courtesy of G.WayneRhodes.com

I don’t know about you, but during the Christmas season I find myself to be more pensive than at other times of the year. The signs and symbols of the holidays surely lead to reflection:  evergreen trees fragrant with that wintry pine smell, outrageously gaudy lights competing in good fun from house to house, Nativity scenes, candles, carols, ribbons, elves—all of it year after year but never wearing out and, despite the secularization of the holiday known as Christmas, it will always and fundamentally be about God’s gift, Jesus Christ.

This brings me to the something else that moves me each year:  the outpouring of envelopes in the mail that comes each morning to our office, envelopes with generous checks of all amounts written with love in the memo to help people in need. I picture Mrs. Scotto at her kitchen table writing that monthly check or Mrs. Tucker clicking the give button on her computer in honor of her son, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. I picture the Rods and Cravens and Blands of this world, the Smiths and Forts and Joneses and Depasses and the countless other kind-hearted donors who are thinking about our patients, thinking about how hard their lives must be and what  it means to find hope in suffering. The checks come in day by day, each one a treasure, each one an extension of the great love that holds our universe together.

Thank you is a small phrase, but what other words do we have to praise the gift and giver?

Angel Flight pilot Ron Calugar handles a stretcher patient with tender loving care.

Our volunteer pilots past and present just can’t help piling up good deeds on top of their Angel Flight service. Here are just a few examples: 

Joe Federico (Virginia) volunteers for the American Red Cross as a CPR, first aid, and oxygen administration instructor. 

Richard Love (Virginia) cycled for years to raise funds in bike tours for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and pulled in over $4,000 toward research to find a cure for the dreaded disease. He is active in Rotary Club and raised money for schools in underdeveloped countries. 

John Clough (Pennsylvania) runs a health-food wholesale distribution business and does volunteer work to help anyone in need. “My whole life is dedicated to helping people,” he says. 

Paul Connor is an optometrist from Ohio who has donated his time and professional skill to provide eye care for residents of Kingston, Jamaica. He also trains locals to perform optical work and manufacture eyeglasses, which are sold at a minimal cost or given to clients unable to afford them.   

Rev. John Hoffmann (Virginia) has participated in numerous humanitarian endeavors. He flew medical missions in Tanzania and conducted assessment work of refugee camps in Kenya and Uganda. 

Ron Calugar, also of Virginia, has donated his considerable computer knowledge and ability to create databases for Angel Flight and other partner charities of Mercy Medical Airlift that increase efficiency and accuracy in the complex business of mission coordination.

Michigan’s Dick Lawrence founded Kid’s Wings, a medical flight charity that mainly helps children but also includes adults in need of access to medical treatment. He’s flown over 165 missions for this group alone!  Dick fills a special niche as a “pilot of last resort” in his region.  When the various coordinating agencies cannot find other volunteers, they will often contact Dick to see if he can do it.  He’s their “go to” guy in this area and tries to be available to respond on a moment’s notice. 

I could name many more pilots and many more feats of kindness but haven’t time or space to call them out. Richard Love, who retired his wings a couple of years ago, summed up the spirit behind the service of our generous pilots when he said, “Giving to others becomes pure joy.”

Fire. Earthquake. Flood. 

All within two weeks right here in Hampton Roads. 

The fire is in the Dismal Swamp. It began with a lightning strike over a month ago. Despite significant rainfall from Hurricane Irene, smoldering continues in the deep, organic peat. We smell the smoke in the parking lot at Mercy Medical Airlift.

The 5.8 earthquake of August 23 rattled our office and shook our nerves. With the epicenter in Mineral, Virginia, it was the strongest quake to jolt the Commonwealth in a century. Fortunately, there was no damage to us, but others as far away as Ohio and New York felt its effects, with damage to show for it, such as cracks in the Washington Monument and collapsed roofs. My sister in Alexandria reported that her town home flooded when the quake caused a water pipe to break.

 And then, Irene. On August 25, our “go team” of employees involved in flight operations packed up their laptops, spouses, children and pets and headed inland to Lynchburg, Virginia to avoid the predicted monster storm and have the ability to carry on operations. These were for patient flights and potential disaster conditions requiring our help with air transportation as we did during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In fact, Angel Flight worked around the clock to arrange some 2,600 flights using our volunteer pilots and enlisting the aid of corporate jets to transport disaster relief personnel, blood supplies and other small cargo into the stricken Gulf region, and evacuees out of there to safety and in many cases to resettlement.

Fortunately, Irene wasn’t “all that,” and here in Virginia Beach, damage was minimal from the storm that tromped through on August 27. My husband, Wayne, and I evacuated to Tennessee on Thursday, fearing our first floor apartment would be flooded and without power. I hurriedly packed and moved books and other items, including Wayne’s ostrich-skin cowboy boots, to higher ground, and planted my heirloom Boston rocker firmly in the bathtub. We returned on Sunday night to full power, no damage to boots, rocking chair, or anything else in our apartment, finding only a snake  in the bathroom, which Wayne kindly disposed of while I looked the other way from the farthest room. 

Hopefully, by God’s good grace, the Dismal Swamp fires will soon be extinguished, the earth’s tectonic plates will stay stable, and the hurricane season will go out like a lamb.

The MMA staff gather 'round Angela to wish her well as she continues her doctoral studies at Old Dominion University.

In academia, there is a constant dialogue of theory vs. practice. As a PhD student, I have read masses of theory on social media, the Internet, and technical communication. Theory, in its own right, is helpful. However, the five months I have spent as an intern social media manager at Mercy Medical Airlift has shown me that practice is equally as important as the theory. Read more…