Pandabear
10-08-2009, 09:06 AM
http://www.agfc.com/news/arkansasoutdoors/ao-20091007.aspx#3
Ken Reeves: From elk hunting to a mercy flight
A few days ago, Ken Reeves was smiling broadly as he and two friends pulled into an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission elk hunt check station at Ponca.
The Harrison attorney had not taken an elk, but a friend had. Reeves was hunting with Mike Smith, the hunter who scored with a 6X6 bull elk on Ronnie Ramsey’s land.
And shortly after that September elk hunt, Reeves smiled again. He had been a catalyst in a successful effort to get a terminally ill little girl from a Houston cancer hospital back to her home at Batavia, near Green Forest and Harrison.
Reeves is vice president and general counsel with FedEx Freight, the international shipping giant based in Memphis but with longtime operations at Harrison.
Jada Harper is the 7-year-old girl stricken with inoperable brain cancer. She is the daughter of Savannah and Jason Surface and a student at Green Forest Elementary School. She underwent treatment at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock then was moved to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at Houston.
The decision was made to let her return home. But she was in a coma and needed constant skilled care. Special air transportation was the only way to get her back home, and the cost was prohibitive for her family, already faced with huge medical bills.
Andrea Martin, principal of Green Forest Elementary, kept close tabs on Jada. Martin phoned Kelly Madewell, who is with FedEx flight operations at Harrison. More calls were made in FedEx offices, and Ken Reeves pitched in, along with other top executives in Harrison and Memphis.
The air ambulance flight from Houston to Harrison cost $11,000, and FedEx picked up the tab. Jada Harper went home.
According to Celia DeWoody of the Harrison Daily Times, Jada’s mother, Savannah, told Reeves at the airport, “It’s all worked out wonderful. I didn’t think we’d be able to get her here, but luckily, my hometown came through. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”
Reeves had scored with an elk of his own on Ramsey’s land in a past Arkansas hunt. He had a large hand in a success of a different sort with the flight for Jada Harper.
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Way to go Mr. Reeves and FedEx! :1222423:
Ken Reeves: From elk hunting to a mercy flight
A few days ago, Ken Reeves was smiling broadly as he and two friends pulled into an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission elk hunt check station at Ponca.
The Harrison attorney had not taken an elk, but a friend had. Reeves was hunting with Mike Smith, the hunter who scored with a 6X6 bull elk on Ronnie Ramsey’s land.
And shortly after that September elk hunt, Reeves smiled again. He had been a catalyst in a successful effort to get a terminally ill little girl from a Houston cancer hospital back to her home at Batavia, near Green Forest and Harrison.
Reeves is vice president and general counsel with FedEx Freight, the international shipping giant based in Memphis but with longtime operations at Harrison.
Jada Harper is the 7-year-old girl stricken with inoperable brain cancer. She is the daughter of Savannah and Jason Surface and a student at Green Forest Elementary School. She underwent treatment at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock then was moved to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at Houston.
The decision was made to let her return home. But she was in a coma and needed constant skilled care. Special air transportation was the only way to get her back home, and the cost was prohibitive for her family, already faced with huge medical bills.
Andrea Martin, principal of Green Forest Elementary, kept close tabs on Jada. Martin phoned Kelly Madewell, who is with FedEx flight operations at Harrison. More calls were made in FedEx offices, and Ken Reeves pitched in, along with other top executives in Harrison and Memphis.
The air ambulance flight from Houston to Harrison cost $11,000, and FedEx picked up the tab. Jada Harper went home.
According to Celia DeWoody of the Harrison Daily Times, Jada’s mother, Savannah, told Reeves at the airport, “It’s all worked out wonderful. I didn’t think we’d be able to get her here, but luckily, my hometown came through. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”
Reeves had scored with an elk of his own on Ramsey’s land in a past Arkansas hunt. He had a large hand in a success of a different sort with the flight for Jada Harper.
----------------------------------------
Way to go Mr. Reeves and FedEx! :1222423: