Management company president flies transplant patient to Winston-Salem
Submitted photo
Paul Mengert, Association Management Group president and an Angel Flight Soars volunteer pilot, recently flew quadruple amputee Helen Lindsey from Atlanta to a medical appointment in Winston-Salem. Lindsey is on the wait list for a hand transplant, targeted for 2017 or 2018.
Special to The Chronicle
Paul Mengert, president of Association Management Group AMG, in Greensboro, one of the Carolinas’ largest professional homeowner association managers, recently returned from an Angel Flight Soars trip transporting Helen Lindsey, a Winston-Salem native, to a medical appointment.
Lindsey, a quadruple amputee, is on a wait list for a bilateral hand transplant and had a doctor’s visit; her transplant is slated for some time in 2017 or 2018.
Mengert is a volunteer pilot with Angel Flight Soars, a nonprofit organization based in Atlanta that recruits pilots to fly medical missions throughout the South.
“It was absolutely incredible,” said Lindsey. “It’s an honorable thing to volunteer your time to transport people like me to appointments. Frequent appointments are important and it’s wonderful to know Angel Flight Soars is here to help. It was so awesome that I’m now going for my pilot’s license. I can’t wait to join them and be a part of Angel Flight Soars.”
Supporting Mengert and Lindsey in the flight were Landmark Aviation and Epps Aviation, which waived fees and discounted fuel.
Since 1983, Angel Flight Soars has connected more than 32,000 families to life-saving medical care: from burn victims needing skin grafts to cancer patients traveling to special treatment centers to hopeful recipients like Lindsey awaiting transplants. AFS flies more than 2500 missions a year with 1000 pilot volunteers.
“Paul joined us in 2009 and is an amazing volunteer. We’re so happy he spends his off time helping other people,” said Bernadette Darnell, AFS director of Mission Operations. “Thanks to dedicated and passionate volunteers like Paul, we are able to assist many people and be a silver lining to families who need assistance with medical care.”
Along with delivering patients to the care they need via AFS, Mengert has also made multiple trips to deliver beds, toys and clothes to an orphanage in Haiti.
“Angel Flight Soars is one of the ways AMG gives back to the community,” Mengert noted. “Over the last five years, I have flown various patients to and from medical treatments. We make travel doable by turning five to 10 hours of driving into just an hour’s flight. Every time I help others, I meet people who inspire me. This was no exception! I’m so grateful I was able to assist Helen. She has faced adversity that most of us couldn’t begin to handle, yet without hands or feet, she climbed in the airplane and took pictures, recorded video and sent text messages. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious – her next goal is to become a pilot. With her tenacity, I have no doubt that it is possible.”
To learn more about Lindsey’s goal to become a pilot, visit https://www.gofundme.com/amputeepilot. For more about Angel Flight Soars, to volunteer as a pilot, request a flight or make a donation, visit www.angelflightsoars.org or call -877-4anAngel.
