Clear on Top

I need your help!  During this Christmas Season, I wanted to bring to your attention a little operation in Indianapolis that is making a difference- and ask you to help them to continue to do it.

About three years ago, Hal and Tamera Blank returned from a medical mission trip and felt led to start a charity air ambulance service, serving the needy in the United States. Grace on Wings operates an MU-2J turboprop airplane that is equipped as a fully functioning medical transport. The video that I posted below describes it best, in pictures.

We often don’t realize what happens when a person suffers a sudden major medical calamity far from home. A car accident, a stroke, a seizure, or other major trauma can leave a person unable to leave the care of a hospital. Insurance companies often will not cover the cost of a private air ambulance transport, if the patient is being adequately cared for where he or she is – and families without the means to pay a $30,000 – $40,000 medical air charter bill can be faced with leaving a critically ill loved one alone, far from home.

I’ve met Hal and Tamera several times, personally, as they often fund-raise at business aviation conventions that I attend. They are wonderfully dedicated and generous people that built Grace on Wings from just an inspired idea. They are in need of a portable ventilator for the airplane – at a cost of about $13,000 – to replace the used one that has now stopped working.

Folks – If we just skipped lunch for a week, we could pay for that ventilator. $50 each – and we wouldn’t even miss it. What can one person do? Well, one person’s network of friends can breathe for a stranger who can’t breathe on their own during a medevac flight. That’s pretty neat.

We’ll probably never need their service. Most of you will never meet these people, or anyone that they have helped. But what a blessing it could be to do good – just because it’s the right thing to do. This is not a chain letter – forward it if you want to, or not. But what I really want you to do is click this link: http://www.graceonwings.org/donations.html and donate $20, $50, $100 to Grace on Wings. Right now. It will take 2 minutes and you won’t even miss the money. And you can help take an injured child or critically ill grandmother back to the embrace of family for Christmas.

If you would, drop me a private note and let me know that you accepted my challenge. I don’t need to know how much you gave, but I want to know that we made a difference.