Annual Meeting

April 5, 2010

Business

The meeting will feature a presentation of annual reports from the boards and committees. We will hear the report of the Nominating Committee to elect members to the Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees, and to the Committee on Christian Work.

Program

Guest Speaker Dick Sundell from Angel Flight NE

Angel Flight NE is a non-profit organization providing free air transportation in priivate aircraft by volunteer pilots so children and adults may access life-saving medical care. They have answered over 14,000 flight requests and have flown over 4 million miles since beginning operations in the spring of 1996. Angel Flight NE has never turned away a request.

As a retired business owner and an avid private pilot flying out of the Beverly Airport in Beverly, MA, Larry Camerlin would hear stories about patients having difficulty accessing healthcare away from home. With a burning desire o combine his love of flying with his background in health care and ministry, Larry sensed there was a great need to establish an Angel Flight hub in New England to serve patients primarily living in the northeastern states. Angel Flight NE was founded in March 1996. Using a small office space donated by the Beverly Flight Center, flight operations began on May 31, 1996 with ten volunteer pilots and two requests for flights. Private pilots donate their time, planes, fuel and resources to provide free air transportation for AFNE's passengers. “Earth Angels” set up and coordinate flights, provide ground transportation to and from the airport and run the daily operation of AFNE.

The donations of over sixteen businesses and fifty-one airline union members donated all the labor and materials needed to make our new headquarters a reality. In April 1998, we moved to a new state-of-the-art flight headquarters at Lawrence Municipal Airport in North Andover, Massachusetts.

Angel Flight Ne's unique service and infrastructure enables them to be responsive in times of crisis such as when the terrorists crashed two planes into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and in the aftermath of Newton, MA Oak Hill Middle School bus crash in Canada in April 2001. In wake of both of these tragedies, Angel Flight was the first in the air, quickly mobilizing pilots, aviation officials and volunteers to provide flights for the victims and their families.

Angel Flight NE is a vital mode for carrying organs and blood, patients awaiting transplants and “compassion flights” (flying loved ones to visit ill family members).

Angel Flight NE is making promises every day, and striving to keep them all to help people in their times of greatest need.