Children’s Flight of Hope

Children’s Flight of Hope is a Raleigh nonprofit that flies sick children to the medical care they need. Families come from across the country, and the group takes on the distance and the cost so a child can reach a hospital able to treat a rare or serious condition. The office is on Corporate Center Drive.

It started with a pilot. In 1990 Al Wethington, a pilot and businessman, learned of North Carolina children with serious medical needs, and the organization he founded became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit the next year.

What to know

• For its first several years the group flew children on a private plane.
• Booking commercial flights began in 2012 and widened the reach of the work.
• The organization passed 100 flights in a single year in 2013.
• American Airlines became a partner in 2016 and Southwest followed in 2018.
• Compassion, responsiveness, safety and gratitude are the four guiding principles staff name.