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"For over 30 years
we've been arranging free flights so children and adults
can have access to the far-from-home doctors that can save their lives."
 
    
Healthcare for Heroes award winner
Healthcare Champions award winner
 
What's up March 27, 2015

See all events 

 

Upcoming Events

Flight with the AeroShell Aerobatic Team! April 24, 2015 

 

Tickets are $20 for 1 chance; $100 for 6 chances and $200 for 13 chances to win. Winner need not be present to win. Drawing at our Pilot Awards Gala April 10 in West Palm Beach, FL. Flight to take place at Sun n Fun Lakeland Fl Friday April 24, 8am. 

 

5K Run April 4, 2015 Orlando Executive Airport 

Saturday April 4, 2015 from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM EDT

The Orlando Executive Airport is hosting our 5th 5K run/walk April 4th! We are limiting the 5K Run to the first 500 runners/walkers that want to sign up and support us. A unique run on taxiways and a runway to support a great cause! Families welcome for this Easter weekend event!

Greater Orlando Aviation Authority Community Bldg.

 

The Dr. Norris Pilot Awards Gala & Golf Classic for Angel Flight Southeast 

Friday April 10, 2015 at 5:30 PM EDT -to- Saturday April 11, 2015 at 2:00 PM EDT

A special thanks to our title sponsors: The Dr. Norris Family Foundation for sponsoring our Pilot Awards Gala & Golf at Madison Green Golf Club. Friday night 5:30-10pm will be a our Pilot Awards Gala, and Saturday will be a 8:30am shotgun start golf tourney. We've moved the Gala to April so we can recognize our pilots and a calendar-year basis.

Madison Green Golf Club

 

2015 Amazing Race for Charity 

Saturday April 11, 2015 from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM EDT

Based upon ideas from the hit CBS television series, The Amazing Race, this event is derived from a successful race that organizers in Loveland, Ohio have staged annually for the last eight years. The Amazing Charity Race has raised almost half a million dollars for charity and now sells all 600+ team slots!

Ferran Park

 

Planes, Trains & BBQ 2015 

Saturday April 18, 2015 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM EDT

Air Show, Seaplane rides, train rides, state sanctioned BBQ competition, car show and musical entertainment throughout the day. Our charity has been once again chosen by the City of Tavares as the exclusive drink vendor for the event!

Wooton Park, Tavares, FL

 

 

 

 

 

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Katheryn and mom, Rebekka_Enroute
Garcia girls Andrea, mom, pilot Marc Miller, dad and Maria
Horath family and pilot Philip North
Aubrey sleeping
Joe Rowan in the cockpit
Kieran Parham
Future Mercy Pilot Derrik
Claudia Mark Diamond Mitsy & Steve
Nestor in his flight suit
 
5K runs, one this Saturday! 
Orlando Executive Airport Saturday April 4th

Register now at RunForTheAngels5k.com
 
5K run sign along Hwy 50

5K run sign at Kittinger Park

 
Executive Airport 5K run Map

Pompano Beach Airpark Saturday May 2

Register on Active.com "Run for the Angels"



Live now! Online auction
Online Auction
Neil Glazer of PilotMall.com has been incredible at procuring many cool auction for our event. This year we will have it online so Attendees can register and bid in advance, and those who cannot attend can even bid on these items! Watches, collectibles, hotel stays, jewelry, electronics, pilot bags and much more!

IMPORTANT
Gala attendees: Please "register to bid" now so you can bid ahead of the event, and at the event on April 10th. You will save a lot of time being registered! You will bid with your smart phones instead of pen & paper. (Don't worry, we'll have someone pretty help you if you don't have a smart phone)

Those not attending the event in West Palm: You can still get in on the action! "Register to bid" now and start bidding immediately, and you can bid all the way through the event until 8:30pm April 10th.

The address for the auction is:

BiddingForGood.com/AngelFlightSoutheast

More items are arriving and being added daily!

Some of our sponsors:



















Thank you pilots!
  Milestones
 Congratulations to the following pilots:

Mike Coutcher25th Mission Recognition!
Manny Brecker50th Mission Recognition!
Milestones is a new feature we will be using to celebrate our volunteer's efforts. Future weeks will publish many more milestones including 1,5,10,25,50 missions and more!!

These are the very special pilots that volunteered to take one or more of our many weekly missions.  Thank you!!

Bo Bowman

Mike Coutcher x2

Manny Brecker x2

Dave Taisch

Ed Golly

Barbara Mathews

Steve High

Dr. Steve Bryan

Peter Fuss

Paul Zavracky x2

Glynn Alexander x2

Any Reardon

 

34 mission legs were coordinated 3/21/2015 to 3/27/2015  

 





CorrectionLast week's caption "Harv Gutwein flying Alex and mom Beth to their second appointment at Shands Hospital" was pilot George Robbins.  Harv is pictured below! 


Pilot Boyd Ellison and our little frequent flyer Andy.

Pilot Ray Roberts and Darlene accompanying her son Jason home from Shands Hospital after a check-up appointment to monitor his stage III Hodgkin lymphoma.

Congratulations
2014 Pilot of the Year Honorees!
POY Group shot
Some of the 2013 Pilot of the Year honorees

We will be congratulating these fine pilots and recognizing many more at our annual Pilot Awards Gala in West Palm Beach on April 10th! This year we are being generously sponsored by the Dr. Norris Family foundation allowing us to recognize many more pilots than ever!

For more info, see "Upcoming Events" on the left side of the newsletter. If you want tickets to this event or the golf tournament the following day act fast! This WILL be a sellout event!

This year the Pilot of the Year Honorees are:

Pilot of the Year Honoree

Region/Category

Charles Gould 

North Florida

John Epley 

North Florida

George Robbins 

North Florida

Rick Wachstein 

Central Florida West

Warren Cheatham 

Central Florida West

John Hanselman 

Central Florida West

David Walker 

Central Florida East

Steven High 

Central Florida East

Alan Hoffberg 

Central Florida East

Marc C. Miller 

Southwest Florida

Gregory Frost 

Southwest Florida

Brian Lucas 

Southwest Florida

Greg Banfield 

South Florida

David Rivero 

South Florida

Fouad (Sam) Samaha 

South Florida

Charles George  

Georgia

Rodger Knox  

Georgia

Howard Wasdin 

Georgia

Delbert Hahn  

Alabama

Harry Palmer  

Alabama

William (Erik) Box  

Alabama

Broadus  Bowman  

South Carolina

John H. (Jack) Schuler  

South Carolina

Robert (Bob) Butler  

South Carolina

Ernest Burdette

Mississippi

James "Bo" Burroughs  

Mississippi

Paul Cellecz

Transplant

Fred Cutting  

Transplant

Charles Gould 

Transplant

Brian Lucas  

Rookie

Gregg Ostrander

Rookie

Tim Bouchard

Rookie

Bradley Pierce

Above & Beyond

Michael Alger

Above & Beyond

Broadus  Bowman  

Above & Beyond

Greg Frost

Dr. Norris Award

Alan Hoffberg  

Dr. Norris Award

Howard Wasdin  

Dr. Norris Award

 



 

Pilot Orientation class

Every third Monday
Next one: Monday April 20th 7pm 
(attend by telephone/PC) 
Register on left of newsletter under "Upcoming Events"
 
adult-education-header.jpg
This class is a must-have for our new pilots, but experienced volunteer pilots are welcome as well. Pilots only, please.

Pilot Brian Jarvis will be covering a variety of topics for enhancing the experience of flying our unique missions.

One hour class, telephone and internet enabled PC, laptop or tablet required.
 
Please sign up on left. Instructions and dial-in number will be sent.

Volunteer Opportunities
(Help Wanted) 

Please register for these on the links to the left, or email Steve at steve.purello@mercymail.org

 

Friday April 10 West Palm Beach, Madison Green Golf Club

  

Opportunities:

 

Van Drivers: Driving one of two 12 passenger vans for our pilots and spouses to and from the airport, hotels and venues. Hertz was very expensive to do this ($800) if anyone has better ideas? Would anyone like to sponsor this? We have 32 airplanes arriving at F45 airport alone! We need two more drivers!
Thanks Bill Brooks for being a driver!
Registration: Need 2-3 volunteers early at Madison Green to register attendees as they arrive. Extra laptops would be helpful. No special software necessary.
Silent/Mobile Auction: Need 2-3 volunteers to help register and electronically bid on items for attendees (might be the same as registration volunteers)
Aeroshell Raffle & Golf Ball Drop raffle sales/admin: Need 1-2 volunteers
Photographer:
Thank you to Jessica Schwartz for volunteering to be our photographer!

If interested in volunteering or have questions, please email me at steve.purello@mercymail.org

Dr. Norris Pilot Awards Gala updates

2 Weeks to go!

There are only about 10 seats left!
Entertainment
Larry Johnson of the "Temptations" will be our Master of Ceremonies and entertainment for the night! He will be singing with his two backup singers, performing Motown hits such as "My Girl" and "It's Just My Imagination"
Larry Johnson and Elevated Soul

 Aeroshell raffle
We will now be drawing the winner live on April 10 at the Pilot Awards Gala.

Get your tickets here

Helicopter Ball Drop
Volunteer Melissa counting 1,000 golf balls for the ball drop raffle


Helicopter ball drop 2

Get in on the action!
1 ball = $5
5 balls= $20
30 balls= $100

Enter here

More media coverage
Angel Flight Southeast Recognizes Top Pilots for their Efforts
Posted: Friday, March 20, 2015 4:00 pm

Full article here 

 

Three volunteer pilots will be honored for transporting patients to far-from-home medical appointments.

For someone person facing a life-threatening illness, the prospect of getting specialized treatment is daunting. Especially when that specialized care is only available hundreds of miles from home.

A tremendous amount of preparation and coordination is needed and can be further complicated when the life-saving treatment leaves the patient with debilitating side effects. These patients need angels to help them survive and Charles Gould, John Epley and George Robbins are ready for the task.

Gould, Epley and Robbins volunteer with Angel Flight Southeast (http://www.angelflightse.org), donating their time, personal aircraft and fuel to fly patients to life-saving medical appointments that otherwise would be too far away or too costly.

The three men will be honored on Friday, April 10, 2015 at the Dr. Norris Pilot Awards Gala for Angel Flight Southeast, to be held in West Palm Beach, Florida, for their dedication to the organization and the patients they serve.

They each are being recognized as honorees for the "Pilot of the Year" Award for the North Florida region, the highest honor for Angel Flight Southeast Pilots. Additional awards will be given to select pilots, including a "Rookie Pilot Award" for pilots who recently joined the organization, a "Transplant Award" for the pilot in the region who has flown the most number of transplant-related flights and "Above and Beyond" for pilots who assist with fundraising and non-flying volunteer efforts.

Charles Gould, who flies a Beechcraft Baron is based out of Pensacola and was named Pilot of the Year in 2012 and 2013. He has been flying for Angel Flight Southeast since 2004 and resides in Pensacola. Gould is also a nominee for the "Transplant Award."

John Epley, who flies a Beechcraft Bonanza, is based out of Marianna Municipal. Epley was nominated for Pilot of the Year in 2012. He has been an Angel Flight Southeast pilot since 2008 and resides in Alford.

George Robbins, who flies a Cirrus, is based out of Northeast Florida Regional Airport. He has been flying Angel Flight Southeast trips since 2009 and resides in Jacksonville.

"Our pilots may be scheduled to fly a local patient to medical appointments any day of the week; sometimes being called to fly in the middle of the night. Sometimes multiple flights are coordinated for both legs of the trip requiring precise timing with the pilots," said Steve Purello, CEO of Angel Flight Southeast which is based in Leesburg, Florida. "We are able to help save many lives because of the dedication and generosity of these volunteers."

Angel Flight Southeast seeks sponsors and attendees for the Dr. Norris Pilot Awards Gala & Golf Classic for Angel Flight Southeast Tournament, to be held April 10-11th, at the Madison Green Golf Club, in West Palm Beach. For information about the event or to learn more about Angel Flight Southeast, please call 352-326-0761 or visit http://www.angelflightse.org/events 

About Angel Flight Southeast

Angel Flight Southeast, Inc. is a non-profit volunteer pilot organization that provides free air transportation throughout Florida by private aircraft to distant medical facilities when commercial air service is not available, impractical or simply not affordable. Angel Flight Southeast is a member of Air Charity Network, an association of charitable aviation organizations comprised of more than 7,500 pilots and who represent over 90% of all charitable non-emergency flights flown in the nation. Angel Flight Southeast has won the seal of approval from Independent Charities of America recognizing Angel Flight Southeast as a good steward of the funds it generates from the public.


 

And more media coverage

Frost recognized as top pilot


Full article here

Gregory Frost, formerly of Lima, currently of Naples, Florida, has been recognized by Angel Flight Southeast as a top pilot. Frost was president of Fidelity Builders Supply, in Lima.


Frost volunteers with Angel Flight Southeast, donating his time, personal aircraft and fuel to fly patients to life-saving medical appointments that otherwise would be too far away or too costly. He will be honored at the Dr. Norris Pilot Awards Gala for Angel Flight Southeast to be held in West Palm Beach, Florida.


Angel Flight Southeast is a non-profit volunteer pilot organization that provides free air transportation throughout Florida by private aircraft to distant medical facilities when commercial air service is not available, impractical or not affordable. For more information visit http://www.angelflightse.org.


Frost, flies a Piper, and is based out of Page Field. He is nominated for the "Dr. Norris Award," which recognizes pilots for service to their country.


Question, comments or concerns?
Contact us at (352) 326-0761
or email us at info@mercymail.org
 
Our organization entirely relies on donations to keep going. More than ever, we could use your help. Please consider making a donation today. Even better, make a recurring donation to help all year long.
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