Can You Help? CORPORATE ANGEL NETWORK
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Volume 9 Number 8 October 1982 Can You Help? CORPORATE ANGEL NETWORK by Penelope Amabile Big ideas sometimes come in small pack ages. At 5'2", Priscilla (Pat) Blum of the Greater New York Chapter needs two pil lows to reach the pedals of my Mooney 201. Her own vintage Comanche fits her only a little better. But because of a big idea Pat had one day, many people’s lives have been changed. “I used to watch all those splendid corpo rate aircraft taking off and landing at West chester County and I knew they were rarely full,” says Pat. “They were luxurious, they Leonard M. Greene, (right) president of Safe Flight Instrument Corporation, welcomes Michael Burnett, were flown by top-notch pilots, they criss 18, of Trenton, Michigan, aboard Safe Flight’s Super King Air at Westchester County Airport, New York. crossed the country, and they had EMPTY Michael had undergone treatment for cancer in N ew Y ork C ity, and is being flown home for a visit on the seats!” Wouldn’t it be wonderful, she mused, inaugural flight of the Corporate Angel Network, sponsored by two divisions of the American Cancer if they could be put to service flying cancer Society. Corporate aircraft on routinely scheduled business trips will be volunteered to fly cancer patients to and from cities with comprehensive treatment centers. patients to or from the specialized treat ment they often needed. require any specialized services en route. ical outlays often discourages them from In these corporate jets, Pat, herself a re The 21 centers in 17 cities across the United seeking the sophisticated care they need. covered cancer patient, saw a magic carpet States would be the primary targets. Add to this expense the emotional stress that could serve a humanitarian function. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, of frustrating travel delays and the anxiety And Westchester County Airport happens Pat and Jay and a growing number of and inconvenience of commercial flights to house the greatest number of corporate excited volunteers worked long hours. And and one can see what CAN’s program has aircraft in the United States. then on December 22,1981, the first magic meant to those patients it has seen swiftly Well, Pat isn’t the kind to stand around carpet departed from Westchester County. and safely to their destinations. VIP han just kicking an acorn back and forth with her Safe Flight’s own Super King Air N100SF dling never hurt anybody! toe. She’ll get a pointed stick, dig a hole, took 18-year-old Michael Burnett home to As an ACS Field Services Director re cover the acorn, water it, pat it down, and Detroit for Christmas. cently wrote, “If ever an acronym was stand there ordering it to grow. Mike had been treated at Memorial Sloan- appropriate, CAN is. It speaks for the ‘can And grow this acorn did. Pat shared her Kettering Cancer Center in NYC for the do’ spirit against the tough odds and heavy “magic carpet” idea with a fellow recovered osteogenic sarcoma that had cost him most load carried by so many.” patient, Jay Weinberg. With his unqualified of his right leg. He was to return after the So the acorn has grown! But it is not yet encouragement, Pat went directly to Leo holidays to undergo a lung operation. But an oak. The program must be replicated nard Greene, President of Safe Flight Instru home he went, a Christmas gift from CAN. across the country to fulfill its goal of becom ment Corporation at HPN and a close per Seven months later, the program, now ing a truly national network. Many hands sonal friend. “ Here’s my idea,” she said. endorsed by the National American Cancer will be needed on the local level to make the “ Now show me all the potholes.” Leonard Society (ACS), had grown to include 44 plan work. couldn’t really find any. corporations utilizing over 90 aircraft and Emphasis to date has been on the Nor Letters — drafts and redrafts — phone was filling 30% of its patient requests. theast. Next to be phased in, CAN hopes, calls, meetings, more letters, and hours and GAM A’s president, Ed Stimpson, wrote will be corporations in Seattle (Fred Hut hours of commitment followed as Pat and his constituents encouraging their participa chinson Cancer Research Center), Hous Jay explored the idea. A name for Pat’s tion in CAN. John Winant, president of the ton, (M.D. Anderson Institute), and Balti program was chosen, the Corporate Angel National Business Aircraft Association, also more/Washington (Johns Hopkins Oncol Network — CAN! lent his personal endorsement. “I look for ogy Center). The program was simple. Empty seats on ward to the day when more corporate air Not yet a year old, the Corporate Angel corporate aircraft would be used to trans craft are available to further this humanitar Network is achieving its goal — the gradual port cancer patients to and from 21 compre ian effort.” Such companies as American development of a nationwide service-orien hensive cancer centers, and CAN would be Express, Reader’s Digest, Time-Life, Avco, ted transportation system for cancer pa sponsored by the American Cancer Socie General Foods, and GTE had offered their tients. It provides corporations with a zero ty’s divisions in Connecticut and Westches aircraft. The Corporate Angel Network was cost means of merging business activities ter. on its way. with expanding social responsibilities in to It would require the careful blending of Response from the national press and tele day’s world. It provides a unique opportun three elements: cancer patients, cancer vision has been heartwarming. But not so ity for voluntarism on many levels. It utilizes centers, and corporate aircraft on routine heartwarming as the response of the pa a heretofore not fully used resources — the business flights. Pat’s knowledge of airports tients themselves. Their letters fill a scrap corporate aircraft. It turns often maligned and aircraft configurations and capabilities book in CAN ’s Greenwich, CT headquar airports into good neighbors. And what an became increasingly useful as she wrote let ters. opportunity for our 99s!. ters to top level corporate management for The 21 comprehensive cancer centers Last week I was out at the airport with Pat discussion with their aviation departments. reach from coast to coast, and cancer watching still another Corporate Angel de Naturally, not all patients would qualify patients frequently must travel long distan part with a young cancer patient on board. for the program. They would need to be ces for the optimum treatment recom “You know,” I said, “you really had a great ambulatory (with folding wheelchairs or mended by their physicians. The high cost idea.” “Yup,” she said with a grin, “yup, I crutches permitted) and they would not of transportation atop their enormous med really did.” PUBLISHER VOLUME 9 NUMBER 8 OCTOBER 1982 The Ninety-Nines, Inc. EDITOR Lu Hollander EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Nema Masonhall This Month In The 99 NEWS Nancy Smith ADVERTISING MANAGER Contents Norma Vandergriff Corporate Angel Network.............................................................. 2 EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Calendar......................................................................................... 4 Jan Million New Ratings .................................................................................. 4 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Highlights of BOD meeting .......................................................... 4 Loretta Gragg The President's M essage.............................................................. 5 HEAD QUARTERS SECRETARY Legislation Information ................................................................. 6 Pat A. Harper Safety Education ........................................................................... 6 Aviation/Aerospace Education Committee at work ................... 7 International Officer* Had You Wondered???................................................................. 8 PRESIDENT Amelia Earhart Scholarship Application ...................................... 9 Marilyn Copeland ATE/American Flyers Scholarship Application .......................... 12 1308 Kevin Road Wichita, KS 67208 CFI Potpourri.................................................................................. 14 VICE-RRESIOENT Seek and Keep in '8 3 .................................................................... 16 Charlene Falkenberg Where, When and Why did you Learn to Fly? ............................. 21 618 S. Washington St. Air Racing Update.......................................................................... 22 Hobart, IN 46342 Chapter N ew s................................................................................ 23 SECRETARY Oshkosh in '82 ............................................................................... 35 Barbara Goetz 8041 RaviniaCt. Advertising Fair Oaks, CA 95628 TREASURER Shangri-La ..................................................................................... 7 Betty Jane Schermerhorn Radio Shack .................................................................................. 8 R.R. #1 Bob’s Bar-B-Q ............................................................................... 12 Dunrobin, Ontario KOA 1TO Canada Classified ....................................................................................... 33 Board of Directors AOPA.............................................................................................. 36 Ruth Dobrescu Janet Green Judy Hall Gene Nora Jessen Hazel Jones ON THE COVER: Both the cover photo and the photo on this page were given