Wings for Children provides free medical airlifts for children in need of specialized treatment.

Mission Description

Wings for Children, Inc., a Pennsylvania 501(c) 3 non- profit corporation, was incorporated on April 5, 1993 for the charitable purpose of assisting ambulatory children with life threatening and /or chronic illnesses requiring specialized medical treatment. These children cannot utilize commercial airlines because of their physical or financial condition. To that end, Wings for Children, Inc. was created recognizing the physical health and emotional well being of such children present unique and critical demands.

Mission Flights

The Mission program provides free medical airlifts to ambulatory children with life threatening and/or chronic illnesses requiring specialized treatment, ages infant to 18 years, who live within a 500 nautical mile range of Pittsburgh, PA. Because of the physical, emotional and financial restrictions associated with such illnesses, mission flights provide eligible children and their families a crucial alternative to commercial flights and other forms of public or private transportation to distant medical centers. The needs of children with life threatening and/or chronic illnesses frequently necessitate special travel  arrangements. For those children who are in acute physical discomfort or require medication by means of IV or pumps throughout the course of a trip, commercialflights are simply not feasible Nor are privatecharters, the costs of which preclude access to medical care or treatment only offered in other cities. Even auto transportation may prove to be exhausting or physically debilitating for a child who must endure continuing medical treatments. Consider a six-year-old child from Pittsburgh who requires special treatment in Philadelphia every other month. This childís family will incur tremendous costs for airfare and overnight lodging, often amounting to much more than they can possibly afford.

Even if this family was to make the trip by car, the travel time involved, coupled with the treatment time, would make a difficult situation even more taxing. In addition, children who have gone through the rigors of chemotherapy and radiation with the resulting physical disfigurement are often ashamed of their appearance. For such children, the special privacy of a mission flight diminishes the potential for embarrassment and emotional discomfort.

The mission flight originates with the referral of the child by a hospital based social worker or upon the direct request of the family itself. At that time, the volunteer Mission Flight Operations Director reviews the request, contacts the family and schedules the flight.

Mission flights vary according to the specific needs of each child. For example, a mission may involve picking up a sick child at one location and bringing that child to Pittsburgh for an extended hospital stay. The mission may even involve transporting a child who lives in Pittsburgh to another city for outpatient treatment. In the latter case, the volunteer Wings for Children Pilots would wait at the destination airport while the child undergoes treatment. The return flight home is made the same day. During each flight, the child is treated to a stuffed animal traveling companion, either Captain Lindy Bear or Captain Amelia Bear.

Wings for Children is a member of the Air Care Alliance, a 501(c)3 exempt organization located in Manassas, Va. The Charitable purpose of this organization is to initiate, promote and support communications and cooperation among organizations engaged in charitable general aviation for health related purposes throughout the United States. Membership in this coalition of volunteer pilot organizations enables Wings for Children to link up with similar organizations to provide assistance beyond Wings for Children's operating range.