Photograph by Robert Scheer
John Ewert secures his precious cargo in his plane for a trip to Modesto. Tessa Blevins, 8 months old, was born with spina bifida and has had to endure many visits to the hospital.
By Cristy Shauck
At Palo Alto Airport, wind whips through the blond hair of 22-year-old Heather Blevins as she steps confidently into the Beechcraft Bonanza six-seater and settles in beside Tessa, her 8-month-old daughter. Because Tessa was born with spina bifida, these two have become veteran air travelers.
Tessa was only hours old the first time she was transported to Lucille Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford Medical Center for surgery to close her spine. Within a month and half, she returned to have a shunt inserted into her skull in order to drain excessive fluids building up. Her condition prevented Tessa's rectum from working properly, so she underwent a colostomy, an operation which creates a new opening for bowel elimination. Follow-up visits were required.
In the beginning, Heather, who lives with Tessa in Modesto, didn't know how she was going to get her daughter back and forth to the hospital.
"Transportation was hard for me," Heather says while arranging Tessa's hat to protect the squirming infant from the sun. "Then my hospital social worker told me about Angel Flight."
The six-seater flying Heather and Tessa home belongs to Sunnyvale residents John and Peggy Ewert, the owners of Ewert's Photo on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale and Duane Avenue in Santa Clara.
The Ewerts, both 63, are flying their 27th mission for Angel Flight, a Santa Monica-based organization which matches ambulatory, continent patients who live in outlying areas, or who are financially stressed, with volunteer pilots who transport them for free to major medical centers such as UCLA or Stanford.
The organization serves California and adjoining states, transporting patients, their families, blood, organs and tissue.
Angel Flight volunteer Patricia Lowers of Cupertino coordinates two or three dozen speaking engagements for the group each year and has spoken to service clubs on its behalf six times herself.
A pilot herself, Lowers is currently preparing for an all-woman cross country air race starting in Prescott, Ariz., June 20. It's her fourth time competing in the Air Race Classic.
Lowers, an engineer and resource scheduler for the Benchmark Center at Hewlett-Packard, knows about the exploits of the Ewerts. "They just give and give and give," she says.
Among Angel Flight's 500 pilots are five Sunnyvale residents: the Ewerts, Robert Brigham, John Steele and Robert Haberle.
"For each of the last three years, Angel Flight pilots have flown 600 missions and spent $300,000 of their own money," says the group's executive director, Jim Weaver. "Our goal is to double the number of people we serve over the next two years."
Angel Flight pilots come from all walks of life. Brigham, 42, a chemist at Charles Evans and Associates in Redwood City, picked up his first Angel Flight passengers--Lacey, who received a heart transplant at the tender age of 18 months, and her mother--in 1993. Now a healthy 7-year-old, Lacey and her mom sent thank-you notes to Angel Flight pilots who have provided transportation over the years.
Brigham has flown five more missions and plans to do another three or four this summer during the height of the season; Angel Flight pilots are not required to fly during bad weather, so most flights occur after the rainy season ends.
"Angel Flight allows me to take my skills as a pilot and do something really good with them," says Brigham. "There's an image of people who fly as rich. But many people can barely afford to do it, and they want to make every moment count. This is a marvelous way to do it. You are sharing a flight with someone who really needs it."
On his first Angel Flight mission last March, Steele, 66, flew a 2-year-old to UC-San Francisco for cancer treatment. Now a consultant, Steele was a corporate and environmental safety manager at Ampex. He earned his wings as a military pilot for 22 years, then flew in the private sector for another two decades. He says the organization gives him "a chance to help people in need who couldn't get it any other way."
Haberle, 50, a planetary scientist at NASA, heard about Angel Flight six years ago. Some of his 12 Angel Flight missions include flying a cancer patient to UCLA Medical Center and heart patients--including Lacey, who lives in the Sierra foothills--to Stanford.
"Angel Flight is very important to Stanford researchers studying epidermolysis bullosa," said Stanford PhD Lexie Nall. "They bring in mothers and fathers with the patient whose blood and tissue samples we can study for genetic links."
The disease causes massive blood blisters to form on the skin. "Some children afflicted with a rare genetic form do not survive to adulthood, but many patients survive into their 30s and 40s," Nall adds.
Haberle, Steele and Brigham rent planes in order to fly for Angel Flight. Each mission requires a pilot and copilot; Haberle sometimes shares the $60-per-hour cost and the piloting responsibilities with former Sunnyvale resident Marcie Smith, who works at Ames Research Center in Mountain View.
Peggy Ewert sees Angel Flight as an opportunity to help someone on a more personal level than most charitable organizations. "There is a closer tie between the recipient and the donor," she explains. "You can meet them, get to know them and in part follow their progress. It brings us together."
"Flying is a privilege," says John Ewert, who earned a pilot's license about the same time as Peggy, 20 years ago. "For the privilege of flying, we like to use it in some worthwhile way."
Tessa seems to understand she's in capable hands; she settles down for a nap, drinking from a bottle Heather holds with one hand while shading her baby's eyes with the other. Heather peers out the window in time to see the red salt-evaporator ponds and the green, snake-like channels tunneling inland from the bay.
In spite of the droning of the plane, the occasional stomach-churning air-pocket dips and the heat, Tessa falls asleep within a few minutes and snoozes until the plane lands 30 minutes later.
John carries Tessa and her infant seat out of the plane, coos to the blue-eyed child, then hands her to her mother so he can retrieve the baby paraphernalia he stowed aboard earlier: a diaper bag, a stroller and a travel bag.
As she prepares to depart, Peggy caresses Tessa's tiny arm, then hugs Heather and says, "God bless you."
Heather smiles and waves good-bye. Next month, she and Tessa will fly to Palo Alto again for another checkup. Perhaps they will fly with Peggy and John again. Or maybe one of the other Sunnyvale pilots. By now Heather knows several Angel Flight volunteers. "They are all wonderful," she says. "They have helped me out so much."
Angel Flight is a nonprofit organization supported by members' dues and contributions from foundations, corporations and individuals. For more information, call (310) 390-2958 or write to Angel Flight, 3237 Donald Douglas Loop South, Santa Monica,90405-3213.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, June 26, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.