Pilots Organize Airlift for Families at The Children’s Inn at NIH

Pilots for Christ Maryland has partnered with The Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Commonwealth Aviation and local pilots to airlift presents for patients receiving care at NIH on Saturday, Dec. 17.

The planned airlift, known as “Miracle on Runway One-Four,” will involve pilots and general aviation aircraft departing from various airports across the Mid-Atlantic and arriving at Montgomery County Airport at 11:00 am. Pilots for Christ will be collecting gifts and organizing volunteer pilots from now until the airlift.

“Our goal is to use our ability to fly to serve those in need,” Pilots for Christ Maryland President Michael McFadden said. “We are organizing the airlift and using our abilities to fly to help share hope and joy for the families receiving treatment at NIH this holiday season.”

Pilots for Christ is collaborating with local businesses such as Commonwealth Aviation, a Manassas-based flight school, to collect donations and organize volunteer aircraft for the airlift.

Those interested in purchasing gifts for children staying at the Children’s Inn at NIH can do so by donating to Pilots for Christ, marking their donations as “Airlift” here: https://www.pilotsforchristofmaryland.org/donation

Donations will be loaded into volunteer aircraft and flown to Montgomery County Airport on Dec. 17.

Interested individuals can also donate to The Children’s Inn directly here: https://give.childrensinn.org/give/329874/#!/donation/checkout

“We hope that this airlift can be the first of many, and we can expand our services to patients and people in need of care more in the future,” McFadden said.

Kim Stevens

Kim Stevens is the publisher of State Aviation Journal, which he founded in 2009. A longtime commercial-rated pilot, he was introduced to state aviation in 1992 as Director of the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics, later serving as Deputy Division Director for the Arizona Department of Transportation's Aeronautics Division. From 2013 to 2018, he was Director of Communications and Operations for the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) in Washington, D.C. Relocating to North Carolina, Kim worked for the Raleigh-Durham International Airport for two years and now concentrates solely on the Journal. Prior to his aviation career, Kim spent a decade in the newspaper and magazine business.