Page 12 - Volume 13 Number 12

development. “TAPS operates on a very lean budget with 88% of every dollar invested in programs, resources and services for military families. To keep our costs low, TAPS has only one headquarters location in Arlington, Virginia. Most of our staff work out of borrowed office space or their homes so they are closer to the survivor communities.”
One new element of this latest Wheels Up Cares aircraft is a limited­edition desktop replica of the camo plane available for purchase, with proceeds from sales going to TAPS.
“Wheels Up is a perfect partner for TAPS because they are a company that values quality service delivery, employs military veterans and honors the sacrifices of our armed forces,” Carroll said.
= The Red King Air
In February 2018, Wheels Up rolled out its red King Air in conjunction with American Heart Month and it continues to fly as a reminder of the importance of cardiovascular health. It supports the American Heart Association (AHA) and Simon’s Heart, a nonprofit started in memory of a three­month­old who died from an undetected heart condition while taking a nap.
Simon’s Heart has raised more than $2 million that it spends on efforts to raise awareness about the warning signs and conditions that lead to sudden cardiac arrest and death in children and to improve detection, innovation and reaction, such as making more defibrillators available.
The American Heart Association funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke. According to the AHA, heart disease (including coronary heart disease, hypertension and stroke) is the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S.
“Our work would not be possible without the generous support of committed companies like these who provide donation opportunities to their customers,” American Heart Association board member James Postl said at the airplane’s roll out in 2018. “These corporate citizens provide a force multiplying impact to our work and help us get ever closer to a world without needless suffering or death.”
= The Teal King Air
The teal plane made its inaugural flight in the Wheels Up Cares fleet in Sept. 2016, taking advocate and ovarian cancer survivor Sherry Pollex to the Ovarian Cancer National Conference. Pollex, who at 35 years old in 2014 was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer, and boyfriend Martin Truex, Jr., of NASCAR fame, partnered with Wheels Up on the event.
10 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and the ongoing nonprofit connected to this airplane is the Janet Burros Memorial Foundation, established to raise awareness and to support the early detection, prevention and treatment of ovarian cancer. The foundation holds an annual golf tournament in Greenwich, Connecticut, that has raised $6 million. Organizers said their funds are currently being allocated to efforts to identify the illness earlier and to personalize treatment protocol for patients with specific variants of ovarian cancer.
This year about 22,530 women will receive a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer and about 13,980 women will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. Only about 20% of ovarian cancers are found at an early stage.
= The Pink King Air
The pink plane was the 45th new aircraft delivered to the Wheels Up fleet in August 2015 and it launched the Wheels Up Cares program. They waited until October to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the airplane continues to be linked to raising general awareness as well as for the Dubin Breast Center of The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai.
The New York City center is one of the world’s top facilities for breast cancer treatment and research, offering a full range of highly personalized, multidisciplinary services, according to Elisa Port, MD, director of Dubin Breast Center of the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai and chief, breast surgery, for the Mount Sinai Health System.
“Our whole center depends on supplemental philanthropy,” she said. “We give the highest level of care to patients regardless of their ability to pay and our level of care includes support services that insurance doesn’t always reimburse for.”
Wheels Up did not provide the amount of financial contributions it or its members have donated to the nonprofits but did share data on how the three previously flying aircraft have been used to raise awareness: 11,657 passengers flown on 6,243 total flights landing at 1,529 unique airports.
“It’s a really inventive and ingenious way of generating philanthropy,” said Port, who traveled with Wheels Up to Wichita to take delivery of the pink King Air in 2015. “Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women in this country besides skin cancer. So in my mind, there can never be enough awareness. This is going to happen to one in nine women in their lifetime. If that airplane reminds even a few people over the course of a year to get a mammogram or to go get checked, it’s been purposeful.” KA
DECEMBER 2019