Angel Flight Central helps people in need get to where they need to go

by Matt Ehrhorn

"We are simply about people helping people in need." This was the goal set in August 1995, when James H. Stevens, Jr. founded Wings Over Mid-America, Inc., or what is now known as Angel Flight Central (AFC). The non-profit organization arranges charitable flights for humanitarian purposes, particularly patients needing access to healthcare in distant destinations who can’t afford to travel. Headquartered in Kansas City at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, AFC serves a 10-state region throughout the Midwest. In April 2000, AFC helped launch Angel Flight America, which further expanded the agency’s work to help people with medical needs nationwide.

Angel Flight Central started with four volunteer pilots and a modest goal to help a total of two passengers a month. Now, 10 years later, AFC’s more than 785 private pilots have flown over four million charitable miles in 6,000 missions. More than 1,500 missions have been coordinated over the past 12 months. Nationally, Angel Flight America is the largest volunteer pilot organization in the nation, representing more than 90% of all charitable aviation non-emergency flights in all 50 states. Approximately 17,000 flights are flown through AFA each year.

Angel Flight is entirely charity funded and is able to provide $3 in services for every $1 donated. All Angel Flight pilots provide their own aircraft, fuel and time at their own expense. According to the AFC website, the effort these volunteer pilots contribute goes beyond any monetary value: “Angel Flight pilots give because they care and want to help those who have a genuine financial and urgent need.”

When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast over three months ago, Angel Flight branches across the U.S. immediately responded to needs for flights in and out of flood-ravaged areas to reunite separated families and relocate displaced families. Overall, Angel Flight has assisted more than 3,700 individuals on more than 2,000 general aviation flights, with still more missions occurring daily. AFC’s Kansas City team coordinated about 200 flights alone for Katrina survivors in addition to their regular flights in September and October.

CEO and Executive Director Christel Gollnick attributes AFC’s effectiveness to statewide and regional coordination among agencies, pilots and other “ground” volunteers. “Grass roots and regional coordination work best,” she says. “We provide the mechanism for pilots to donate their time and energy.”

AFC Missions Director Brenda Champagne and her team typically coordinate about five missions per day out of the Kansas City office. In the Katrina aftermath, she answered hundreds of information and assistance calls from all over the country in addition to her normal mission activity. She coordinated more than 100 hurricane missions within just a few weeks and spent a week in Texas, assisting a large majority of calls coming into the Angel Flight South Central office. According to Gollnick, “The number of hours [Brenda] put in to go over and above the call of duty to help Hurricane Katrina victims was overwhelming and inspiring.”

In addition to flying several missions and spending thousands of dollars of his own resources, Ty Carter, a volunteer pilot and former AFC Board member, organized a ground effort early on in the disaster relief to transport supplies to workers and victims in hurricane-affected areas. He was one of the first pilots to contact AFC after Katrina flooded New Orleans and other areas along the Gulf Coast. Some of Carter’s flight missions provided Heart to Heart International with personnel and supplies. On another mission, Carter transported two young, diabetic brothers who were donating diabetes medical supplies to other diabetic kids in hurricane-affected areas.

Angel Flight is currently evaluating and further improving response services for future disasters. They also are hoping to expand rural and urban community outreach to let others in need know of the organization’s existence.

For volunteer and support information, please go to www.angelflightcentral.org.