Santa’s helpers taking flight to deliver Christmas gifts to local family
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IDAHO FALLS – Many people have ideas about what Santa’s sleigh looks like, but for a local family it looks like an airplane.
Since 1983, Angel Flight West, a California-based nonprofit, has partnered with pilots in 12 western states to fly people to their medical appointments at no cost to the passenger. The organization launched Flights of Joy in 2020, which gives volunteers a chance to provide Christmas gifts to previous recipients and their families.
These are families who are unable to buy gifts. This year, Rick Holloway, a Caldwell-based pilot, will be delivering gifts to a family in eastern Idaho.
“My wife and I have been doing this for (the last four years), and it’s really quite rewarding,” Holloway tells EastIdahoNews.com.
Due to privacy concerns, we are not able to identify the family or where they live, but the recipient, whom the organization is calling Mindy, says Angel Flight West flew her and her kids to Arizona in September for a follow-up treatment after a surgery.
She was spared the expense of an 850-mile trip that would have taken 13 hours by car. She is grateful for Holloway’s assistance and feels blessed by the organization’s generosity again this holiday season.
“There is no way to even begin to put into words how thankful … I am (for) Angel Flight West and their angels. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you have done to help me get to my medical appointments, and for making this a Christmas that I wouldn’t have been able to make possible on my own,” Mindy writes.
Holloway has been a pilot since 1999 and has flown 177 Angel Flight West missions throughout the Pacific Northwest over the last eight years. He’s happy to use his flight training to help those in need.
He and another pilot will be delivering gifts to Mindy and her family in a six-passenger Piper Cherokee 6/300 plane sometime this week. It’s a trip he and his crew are excited about.
Mindy hasn’t told her kids about the flight. She knows they will be surprised and grateful when the gifts arrive.
Holloway appreciates all the Idaho pilots who participate in this program every year. He’s proud to be counted among them and plans to continue helping families for as long as he can.
To donate or learn more, click here.
WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH HOLLOWAY IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.