 Escort Program Announcement
Due to the current economic situation, the Airline Ambassadors Escort Program is now limited to accepting applications solely from American Airlines employees. If the situation should change, we will announce the opening of the program once more to all airline personnel. Thank you to all who have participated in the program throughout the years!
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Airline Ambassadors provides volunteer escorts for children coming to the United States for medical care that their families cannot afford or is not available in their home countries. Additionally, AAI escorts orphaned children from around the world to their new families.
Over the years Airline Ambassadors volunteers have escorted thousands of children.
This program, which is directed by long time volunteer Margaret Whitehead, is a unique and rewarding way for American Airlines personnel to volunteer to act as a guardian for an often sick and/or frightened child.
To be a child's escort, you must be an American Airlines' employee, a member of Airline Ambassadors, and be eligible for airline passes. It is preferable that you are a current AA employee and eligible for high priority passes. Escort trips range from 1 to 3 days.
Escorting is not for everyone. You must be flexible, quick thinking and resourceful. It is not easy to take medically fragile children from their mother's arms and fly them away to a distant, unknown land. You will have the frightened child in one arm, carry-on bags in the other, and emotionally distraught relatives behind as you make your way through security and onto the airplane.
But the child will usually calm down and begin to bond with you. You then realize what an important role you are playing in helping to restore a child to good health. We have found that most escorts who bring these sick children to the U.S. ask to return them to their families once their treatment is complete. Although most of our escort trips are to accompany medically fragile children, we do sometimes escort orphaned children to their new families. 
The American Airlines Miles for Kids in Need program provides free round trip tickets to children coming to the U.S. for donated medical care. We especially want to thank American Airlines for also giving free positive space passes to our escorts, which in turn provides considerable savings for our non-profit agency partners who arrange for their care.
Margaret Whitehead
Director
Airline Ambassadors Children's Escort Program
2010 Children's Escort Program in Review (pdf for print)
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How can I become involved?
- Become a Member - Your membership not only gives you access to all of AAI's Missions and Projects, but also helps with the high cost of logistics, storage, acquisition, transportation and other services of the aid that we provide for emergency and chronic disaster relief.
Reminder: An unprecedented 98% of all donated funds go directly AAI authorized projects! Further, every dollar contributed is leveraged to produce over $45 worth of aid. Your generous donation is truly being spent as intended.
» See our Annual Report
GUIDELINES FOR
ESCORTS
Apply to Become an Escort
- When you join Airline Ambassadors, you will be sent a welcome packet that contains an escort application. If you are an American Airlines' employee and would like to join our team of children's escorts, simply complete the application and mail it to:
Margaret Whitehead
Director, Children's Escort Program
700 Avalon Way
Peachtree City, GA 30269
mmwhitehead3@aol.com
American Airlines, Miles For Kids In Need®,
Airline Ambassadors, and Gift of Life International Transport
30 Salvadoran Children to Receive
Heart Surgery
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, June 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
American Airlines, through its Miles For Kids In Need® program, along with Airline Ambassadors International and Gift of Life International,
transported 30 Salvadoran children to the
United States to receive desperately needed heart surgery.
Read more...
Interested in becoming an escort?
Read Escort Reflections: Reported by, Terry Bobbitt, American Airlines' Flight Attendant
"A Mission within a Mission"
February Escort Mission - El Salvador to Shriner's Hospital - read more in the "News"...
» Read Escort Stories from the field
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