Compassion Takes Flight

Many months of inspired work have led to this day, September 22, when our beautiful new documentary, Compassion Takes Flight, is being unveiled. Tonight at 7 p.m. a group of invited guests will gather in our conference room at Mercy Medical Airlift headquarters in Virginia Beach to watch the premier of a 60-minute film produced as a gift to us by Cross and Flag Productions. We are most grateful to Dewayne Rudd and Rick Moore of Cross and Flag for their support of our works of mercy, their extraordinary artistic and technical abilities, and their desire to give exposure to Mercy Medical Airlift in order to help more suffering people.

We are especially pleased that our mayor, Will Sessoms, has proclaimed today in Virginia Beach as Mercy Medical Airlift Day, in recognition of both the premier and our 25th year anniversary, being celebrated this year.

Here is the text of the Proclamation:

Whereas: Utilizing a borrowed aircraft in 1972, the founders of Mercy Medical Airlift transported their first patient, filling the need for charitable  transportation for non-profit organizations; and

Whereas: Mercy Medical Airlift has continually evolved since its humble inception, developing nationwide aero-medical transportation programs, such as the   National Patient Travel Center, Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, Airlift   Hope  America, Air Compassion America and Air Compassion for  Veterans, among others; and

Whereas: Over the past twenty-five years, Mercy Medical Airlift has provided free air transportation to thousands of patients and their escorts, as a public  benefit exceeding millions of dollars; and

Whereas: We salute Mercy Medical Airlift as the nation’s oldest and largest medical transport charity and congratulate them today as they premier their inspiring story in the documentary, “Compassion Takes Flight.”

Now Therefore, I, William D. Sessoms, Jr., Mayor of the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, do hereby Proclaim:

September 22, 2009
Mercy Medical Airlift Day

Below is a synopsis of the film (DVD copies are available for a donation of $25— includes S&H. Order online or send check payable to Mercy Medical Airlift and designated “film”):

Where do you go for help when you’re sick and financially stressed, when treatment is far away from home? The gift of flight is the subject of this inspiring documentary that showcases a small office in Virginia whose motto is, “No patient left behind.” Veterans, children, cancer patients, burn victims—all these and more find help when “compassion takes flight.”

 “Hope is what we’re all about,” says Jim Smith, an executive with Mercy Medical Airlift. This national charity and its various programs provide a service most Americans are unaware is even needed: patient travel. In Compassion Takes Flight, you will discover, for example, that 10 percent of our population suffers from rare diseases requiring specialized treatment far from home. Mercy Medical Airlift provides charitably donated airline tickets for such patients. Other patients in need take Angel Flights.

This moving documentary begins with a night-time call from a distressed woman to the National Patient Travel Helpline. It continues with a review of the history of aero-medical air transport—a history never before shown on film—then portrays the Angel Flight, commercial airline, air ambulance, and veterans programs.

Since the early 1970s when he first began public benefit flying, founder and CEO Ed Boyer has created a variety of programs including a national call center, an air ambulance group, and a program for military patients and families, Air Compassion for Veterans. To raise funds, Air Compassion for Veterans featured the Charlie Daniels Band at an event called Halos and Heroes, along with an honors ceremony for veterans and service members. The film’s grand and patriotic finale shows the connection between the charitable work of Mercy Medical Airlift and the generosity of America the beautiful.

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