16-year-old pilot flies emergency medical supplies to rural hospitals fighting coronavirus
- Rural hospitals are facing dire supply shortages as they struggle to fight the coronavirus.
- TJ Kim, a high-school sophomore in Bethesda, Maryland, is using his pilot-training lessons to deliver medical supplies to rural Virginia hospitals.
- TJ's calling the program SOS: Supplies Over Skies.
- On his most recent mission, he brought 3,000 gloves and 1,000 head covers to a hospital in Woodstock.
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Following is a transcript of the video.
Narrator: 16-year-old TJ Kim can't even drive yet, but he's learning to fly. And he's using his flying lessons to deliver personal protective equipment to rural hospitals in Virginia. The sophomore from Bethesda, Maryland, noticed hospitals were in short supply of gloves, masks, and gowns because of the coronavirus pandemic. It's all part of a program he's called SOS: Supplies Over Skies.
TJ Kim: It started a couple weeks ago when I turned 16. School was just canceled, and our lacrosse season was just canceled, and really I all I had to do was flight training.
Narrator: TJ's been taking flying lessons for a year.
TJ: It was my dream to become a fighter pilot in the Navy. Last year, for my 15th birthday, my dad got me what's called a discovery flight. It's where you go up with an instructor, and he shows you how the plane works and what it feels like to fly. And immediately I just fell in love with it.
Narrator: When stay-at-home orders hit his hometown, TJ wanted to keep up his training.
TJ: In my flight training, we're in a stage that's called cross-country flights, which means flights that are more than 50 miles. Together with my dad, I talk with him about ways to come up serving the community and also doing these cross-country flights. We did some more research, and we found that there are seven critical-access hospitals in Virginia that we could fly to and provide medical supplies. I saw a need, and I just wanted to help.
Narrator: Every week, TJ collects masks, gloves, and disinfectant spray from around his neighborhood.
TJ: We communicate with rural hospitals about which hospitals are in need and where we need to go.
Narrator: TJ also talks with a flight school to get weather reports.
TJ: So we're not flying in any dangerous winds or weather.
Narrator: But he's also in school, so flying is saved for the weekends. His latest delivery brought 3,000 gloves and 1,000 head covers to a Woodstock, Virginia, hospital. TJ says rural hospitals are hurting for supplies too, and he wants to make sure they're not forgotten.
TJ: Being able to use that love for flying that I found a year ago and serving the community at the same time has just been a true blessing. I just wanna thank all the doctors and nurses who are just serving on the front lines, and as long as they have a need for supplies and as long as I'm able to go fly to them, that's what I'm gonna do.
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