About Wings of Life over Malone:
Wings of Life Over Malone was founded by Victor Fellion of Fellion's Diamond Center in Malone NY, and it helps make it possible for people in need to make trips to and from hospitals in and around the Northeast area.
This service is totally supported by Victor Fellion and a portion of each sale at Fellion's Diamond Center goes to support his Wings of Life Over Malone Program. When you shop at Fellion's, you help Victor support a person in need.
This is a free service, with no restrictions as to income or net worth.
A passion for flying and helping others is where it all began.
In
1994, Victor purchased a Cessna Cardinal C-177 airplane and he promised
himself that if he could afford to buy the plane, he would use it to help
people.
When he first started, he was asked to fly eyes that were donated by individuals to the Albany Eye Bank. Due to the limited life a pair of eyes would last, timing was an issue. He would wait at the hangar in Malone, then the eyes would be delivered to Victor by the Harvest nurse, and he would leave for Albany. The trip took approx 90 minutes allowing for the eye bank to preserve the eyes to give someone sight. As technology has developed, the eyes were able to be preserved at the time of donation, therefore flying wasn't necessary to fly the eyes to Albany in a timely manner.
Then Victor began flying for people.
"My passion in life is flying, and if I can help people in need, and get to fly, I really have the best of both worlds.
I think I make a difference in peoples lives, by helping them through rough times, in making trips to and from hospitals for them easier, and less stressful.
Some can't afford the expense of the trip overland due to an old car, or the drain on finances to get back and forth. Some people have to get to a hospital, then back home due to other children, or other circumstances that demand a faster way to take care of their specific issue, or a trip back home after chemo is too much of a drain on them physically.
For all these reasons, and other emergency issues, I fly for people, to make their situation a little easier to deal with.
Since 1994, there have been many many times and memories of people that I have helped some happy and some sad, as I lost a patient that I had been flying for approx 3 1/2 years to Burlington a she was fighting Cancer. The family and Brit developed a close relationship with me, and it was a sad time when she lost her battle. Brit is still on my mind, and I will never forget her and her love of flying in my plane . She sent me a picture of her and her mom. on the back, she said " with love from your frequent flyers."
Victor has flown people as far away as South Carolina, into airports such as JFK, Boston, MAS. Charlotte, NC. Dorval Montreal, and many many other airports.
Memorable Stories...
Baby Adoption"One family didn't know how they were going to get to Kenedy International Airport and be able to get to the Korean Terminal, to adopt a new baby and get back home in time to go to work the following day.( this baby boy, from Korea was due to be at the Korean arrival desk) That is when I helped them.
We left Malone, flew into JFK. (I was the only piston powered aircraft on the ground at JFK) We taxied my plane to a private aircraft fixed base operation. The family was then taken to the Korean arrival counter via a JFK van and were able to adopt the Korean baby.
We then departed JFK for the trip back to Malone with the little guy and his new family. This trip totalled app 7 hours, where it would have taken at least 2 days for the family to travel to NY City, find just where they had to go, pick up the child, and return to Malone.
Due to the length of time needed to travel overland, and the different stops that would be needed, the family wouldn't be able to do this trip in one day, and would have the added expense of overnighting some where along the way home, along with the additional meals, ect." - Victor
Emergency Transportation"I was called by a person who had a son that was involved in a severe accident in South Carilina. The person's son was in the emergency room in SC, and he became worse and was transfered to Intensive Care, his brain started to swell, causing his condition to become critical.
The father called me and told me that the hospital called, and told him if he wanted to see his son, he had better get there soon as things were getting more critical as time went by. I checked weather and within an hour we were in the air, and on our way to South Carolina with the mom and dad." - Victor