Gracin was born with one leg shorter than the other. We fly her from central Kansas to St. Louis Shriners for bone lengthening. Gracin spends four hours a day doing physical therapy. Her mom, Traci, says she “couldn’t imagine adding 16 hours driving to that routine every two weeks.” When asked what Wings of Hope means to her, Traci says, “There are no words.”

Matthew was 28, serving his community as a police officer and his country in the National Guard, when cancer turned his life upside down. Treatments at his local hospital in Mississippi were not helping, so we flew Matthew to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. – a 15-hour trip by car. Because Matthew was able to get the most advanced care for his particular type of cancer, he is now in remission.

“You give and you help others, which is what we’ve always tried to do is give and help others,” says Matthew’s mother, Kim, “but you don’t know when it’s going to be you that needs the help. And we are so grateful for you reaching out to us in our time of need.”

Born premature and with mild cerebral palsy, Elizabeth spent the first five years of her life pulling herself around using her forearms, aka doing the “military crawl.” We flew Elizabeth from rural Kansas to St. Louis Shriners Hospital for major surgery – and continue to fly her for post-op treatments. Now, she is walking with a walker!

Amerlyn’s lower leg had to be amputated shortly after birth. We fly her from Kansas to St. Louis Shriners every 8-10 months to have her prosthetic lengthened. Amerlyn loves flying in the Wings of Hope plane – we love seeing the progress she’s made!

Griffin and Owen are not related, but their stories are incredibly similar. They were both born in the same month and year and with the same condition: clubfoot. When they were just weeks old, we started flying both of them from their hometowns to St. Louis Children’s Hospital to see a doctor nationally renowned for his nonsurgical treatment of clubfoot. They were both walking before they turned two — and are now hitting all their developmental milestones.

“At Thanksgiving, our 7-year-old daughter was making leaves that showed things she was thankful for. She made a beautiful leaf and on it she wrote, ‘I am thankful for Wings of Hope, because they helped fix my brother’s feet.’ We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. We know we wouldn’t be where we are in Griffin’s journey and medical diagnosis without all of you. Thank you once again for investing in our son’s life and giving us hope for a bright future!” Griffin’s mom, Amanda

“Wings of Hope means that this little boy gets to walk and run and play. If we were still getting treatment at home, I don’t see that we would be where we are today. We hit a wall, and Wings of Hope has allowed us to fly over that wall and give him so much more than we could have given him at home.” Owen’s mom, Jana