SUBMITTED NEWS RELEASE
In the spirit of the holiday season, Angel Flight West pilots from Reno and Las Vegas will deliver boxes filled with food to tribal families in Nevada this weekend, weather permitting.
Pilots who volunteer for the Nevada Wing of Angel Flight West, a national volunteer pilot organization that provides services to families in need of medical care, will take time away from their usual duties this season for the food-delivery event.
“This year’s flight has special meaning for many of us because we will be helping tribal families put Christmas dinner on the table in remote locations of our state,” said Tom Porta, a volunteer Angel Flight pilot taking part in this year’s event. “This year has been especially difficult for many families and we are honored to help.”
If the weather cooperates, Angel Flight West pilots out of Reno plan to deliver boxes of food to the Fort McDermott Shoshone-Paiute Tribe on the Oregon border on Saturday and Duck Water Shoshone-Paiute Tribe near Elko on Sunday.
The Angel Flight West Nevada Wing received donations from its member to send 115 boxes of canned and boxed goods and a $25 gift certificate for turkeys to 75 Duck Valley tribal families and 40 Fort McDermott tribal families. The Angel Flight West pilots out of Las Vegas plan to deliver boxed goods and $25 gift certificates to the Lovelock Paiute Tribe, Yomba Shoshone Tribe and Duck Valley Shoshone Tribe.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., Angel Flight West began in 1983. Pilots donate their time, aircraft and expense of working with passengers who need their help to get necessary medical treatment. The passengers and their families pay nothing for non-emergency air travel. The pilots are engineers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, business people, retirees and many others. But as different as these men and women might be, they all have two things in common: The love of flying, and the desire to touch people’s lives.
