The picture is of our escorts, AA flight attendants Masako Doi and Danielle deBeauffort, and Melinda Morenz, a former AA flight attendant, in the CDG Airport in Paris as they receive 3 little patients from the two Air France escorts who brought them from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Since the two babies were both coming for heart surgeries Melinda, who is also an RN, was all prepared to check them out and make sure they were doing well on their long journey. The trip went well and they were met in O’Hare by two new escorts, Soad Hamdan and Christian Robinson, both AA flight attendants who accompanied them to their final destinations in the U.S. Although there were so many things that could have gone wrong on such a complicated trip, everything went exactly as planned. All three children are having their surgeries and we expect to be able to return them to their homeland in a few weeks with help once again from our friends at Aviation sans Frontières in Paris.
On January 10, 2011, 2 escorts, Kathy Savage and Frances Little (both DFW-AA flight attendants) traveled to Belize to accompany 4 orthopedic patients back to St. Louis. There were two 15 year old girls, both named Kim, 10 year old Bradley, and the “baby”, 8-year old Alex. When they arrived in DFW, another escort was supposed to meet them and accompany them to STL. However, she lives in Springfield, MO and was snowed in and couldn’t make it to DFW. So, Kathy Savage took them on to STL. There was a snowstorm in St. Louis right after their arrival Monday night so they all were able to experience their first snow the next morning. Little Alex had quite an adventure playing in “the white stuff”!
You can read the original story here.
Airline Ambassadors participated at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Child Protection Campus at Haiti’s Port-au-Prince airport on October 13. The French Ambassador was present at the event, kicking off a collaboration between BPM (the Bureau for the Protection of Minors – a division of the Haitian Police), UNICEF and Airline Ambassadors. AAI’s Dave Rivard will oversee construction of the campus which was funded by a generous grant from France.
About upcoming medical escort program opportunities!
On September 14, 2010 members of Hawaii Interline Tennis Society gathered at the courts for their next 3-day tournament to benefit Airline Ambassadors Intl. H.I.T.S. was created within the airline industry to offer employees and their families a fun way of sharing ALOHA and tennis while raising money for the American Cancer Society, Wheelchair Tennis, and Special Olympics. This is their 20th year of holding tennis tournaments all over the globe. Airline Ambassadors is honored to be the recipient this year of such dedication from these committed athletes. Thank you Sonny Crawford, director and coach, and cancer survivor. Losing two sons in tragic accidents has inspired him to devote his time to coaching and encouraging kids to participate in tennis.
