Dear Wings of Hope Family,
Hanging on the wall in my office are a series of photos from visits I have made to our field bases around the world. Each picture tells a story about someone we have helped. Another life saved. Another life changed.
There is a picture of one-year old Jaden and his mother. I had the opportunity to spend time with them on one of our flights to Cincinnati where Jaden would receive treatment for burns at Shriners Hospitals for Children. In another, Mike Neville-Rolfe, a bush pilot for Flying Medical Service, our Tanzanian partner, is just about to vaccinate a Maasai infant. The baby’s mother is holding the child with a look on her face that can only be described as equal parts love and concern knowing her baby will cry when it is jabbed with the needle containing the vaccine.
As you read the pages of this edition of LIFT, you will encounter other people who have touched our lives. Our Young Ambassadors did a terrific job raising funds through our annual Taste of Hope event to help make it possible to carry out lifesaving work in Haiti, Zambia and Ecuador. You will read about the young people who participated in our STEM activities and how we hope, in our own way, we helped change their lives by exposing them to humanitarian aviation.
You will also meet our new partner, Mercy Air. Working with Mercy Air, we will reach people for the first time in villages in South Africa and Mozambique where more than 900,000 people face food insecurity and lack easy access to basic health care.
The faces that stare back at me from the framed pictures on my office wall uplift me as I reflect on the positive change we have made in their lives. Those faces also remind me that there is much more to be done… many more lives to be saved and changed.
Thank you for being a part of that change.
Bret Heinrich,
President & CEO