SkyHope provides comfort to area medical patients

A mixture of philanthropy and cookies provides a lifesaving service for medically needy people in Washington County who require specialized healthcare. The philanthropy comes from an organization called SkyHope and the pilots who donate their aircraft, skills, time and fuel money to ferry patients to far‑flung hospitals and doctors' offices. Their generosity is often lifesaving for the patients who take advantage of this free service.

The cookies? They come from a special group of volunteers at Eastport Municipal Airport who have appointed themselves volunteer greeters for patients and pilots. According to one former patient, their presence has warmed the hearts of many.

It's a winning combination, according to Sara Myrick, an art teacher at the Eastport schools, who recently underwent open‑heart surgery in Portland and utilized SkyHope. "If I didn't have SkyHope, I don't know what I'd be doing right now. I honesty don't. My health had declined so badly."

The Eastport single mother had to be flown to Portland several times to receive the treatment she needed for her leaking and damaged heart. She calls SkyHope, a free service that operates in states east of the Mississippi River, a blessing.

An additional blessing was the presence of volunteers bearing freshly baked cookies and copious hugs at the airport to send off patients and pilots and then welcome them back on their return flights. "Every volunteer who shows up makes it feel like not just a taxi ride," Myrick says. "You feel like they're going to be there to help you through this."

Those volunteer greeters are led by Tessa Ftorek, who began the program two years ago when she saw the need to ease the anxiety of patients set to take off on what might be their first airplane ride. The cookie greeter program is unique across the area that SkyHope serves, and Ftorek says she's currently seeking more volunteers as many greeters have left Eastport for the winter.

"We started by giving the patients and pilots cookies," she says. "After all, what could be more comforting than cookies?" That's since grown to handouts that include pretzels and mustard from Raye's Mustard and bottles of water from the IGA. The WaCo Diner has also chipped in to offer pilots a meal if they're here long enough for one.

Others in the community have also stepped forward to help. Recently, Londyn and Kagan Curtis, the children of the owners of Polar Treat in Perry, presented SkyHope with tips they'd received at the restaurant.

In addition to the food gift bags volunteer greeters give out, they also may also help patients to and from the planes and tuck them into the plane's seats -- all while giving plenty of reassuring hugs.

Julie Leppin of Eastport is one of the many greeters recruited by Ftorek. "Volunteering gives me great joy. If I can help somebody else, I might need help some day. I fully believe we need to help our neighbor, whether it's a smile on the street or as a cookie baker. I'm humbled to be part of this."

The greeter program has also helped spread the word in the community about the availability of SkyHope, which has flown 67 flights out of the Eastport airport so far this year, a significant increase from the year before. Ftorek and her program have been lauded by the director of development and marketing for SkyHope, Brook Leighton. "We notice a strong sense of community in Eastport where people go out of the way to share information with others," Leighton says. "The people in Eastport really rally around each other. It's lovely. It's beyond what we have in other places."

But the real heroes, say both Ftorek and Leppin, are the people who run the free SkyHope services and the pilots who make it all happen. In fact, the organization was founded 15 years ago by pilots already providing such lifesaving flights but who wanted to expand their ability to reach more people.

"The growth has been very steady over the years. We started with just doing a couple of hundred flights per year, now we do a couple of thousand flights a year," Leighton says. "But there's a limitless need."

The necessity for medical flights is especially acute in rural states such as Maine, and Leighton says this state accounts for a disproportionate number of SkyHope's flights. "There are many people in Maine who live in medical deserts, where there's not adequate care nearby so they need to travel."

Pilots such as Portland's Annie Hathaway say they're "grateful for a reason to fly for a purpose. I've seen how SkyHope changes other people's lives for the better. There is a popular saying in the aviation world: 'A mile of highway will take you a mile, but a mile of runway will take you anywhere.' For a patient who is in need of reaching a long‑distance medical facility, that one mile of runway at the Eastport Municipal Airport is their lifeline."

Zan Currier of Perry and her 12‑year‑old daughter Binoche Hyatt have experienced that hope multiple times. SkyHope flies the pair every few months to Philadelphia, where Hyatt receives specialized orthopedic treatment at the Shriners Hospital.

Currier, a pilot herself, says that the availability of the free service has taken a weight off her. "The level of philanthropy within SkyHope is incredible. Their level of commitment to our community is vast. It's really run in a professional manner and is very safety‑minded."

And, yes, the cookies and greeters help too. "It brings warmth and comfort. It's a loving move," Currier says. "You don't find that everywhere."

Leighton at SkyHope agrees. "Eastport volunteers embody the spirit of SkyHope. We're not just about getting people to a medical appointment. We're about taking the burden off people during what is their hardest time of life. It's about showing up for people and showing that you care."