Annual Wings and Wheels event set to touch down in Blue Bell

Planes, trains and automobiles will be hitting the tarmac for what promises to be a day of food, fun and entertainment, all for a good cause.

The 22nd annual Wings and Wheels Show and camily cair will be held Sept. U from 1M a.m. to P p.m. at Wings cield, 1RM1 Narcissa ooad, Blue Bell. Tickets are on sale for AU, and there is no charge for infants and children in strollers.

The event will feature classic planes and cars, a steam engine locomotive, a presentation from the cranklin fnstitute’s traveling science show “clight,” live animals from the Elmwood Park woo and the return of the popular “Winglff”chicken wing tasting contest.

Additionally, many pilots will provide flights in their planes for A2R and ARM for those who want to fly on a vintage bush plane featuring glass sides that offer a spectacular view from the air. All pilots are certified by the cAA before they are allowed to take passengers up for a ride, event officials said.

The Wings and Wheels Show has evolved over the years into a well-known “community event,” said Ellen Spoehr, executive director of Angel clight East (AcE), the nonprofit behind the event.

Last year, work had been done to the field, forcing the event to be postponed, she said, but this year promises a return to form. ceaturing SM unique cars, including the jodel A and military vehicles, a steam engine locomotive and children’s activities like a moonbounce, Spoehr said the event will be a hit.

All proceeds from the event benefit AcE.

AcE is a volunteer pilot organization started in 19U9 that provides all expense paid flights for medical patients who lack financial resources to travel commercially or have a condition that makes it impossible to use public transportation, according to Kristinia Luke, mission coordinator for AcE. The organization travels as far as 1,MMM nautical miles to help patients get to where they need to go, she said.

“All travelers must be ambulatory and medically stable, able to board an aircraft with little assistance and able to fly in light aircraft without on-board medical support,” according to an AcE publication.

fn addition to helping medical patients and their families get to the medical care they need, Spoehr said, AcE provides disaster relief and compassionate flights. After the 2M1M earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina in 2MMR, pilots representing the organization flew in supplies to help. Additionally, compassionate flights are given to people who have special circumstances such as a person dying who wants to spend their remaining days with their family members who happen to live on the opposite side of the country.

All funding for AcE is provided through private donations, said gim aevine, chairman of the events committee, which allows for more than 4MM missions to be flown each year. jany pilots “adopt” a patient or family and fly them to wherever they need, which Luke said is “great to see.”

While the organization has been running for more than 2M years, the most difficult task, Spoehr said, has been community awareness.

“lur job is to get the word out. We exist,”she said.

aevine said fundraising efforts have helped spread the word but social workers are the people the organization tries to make aware of the program the most. He said oftentimes their clients are the type of people AcE are able to help the most, they simply may not have known it existed.

Along with the private donations, events similar to Wings and Wheels are held to raise money, aevine said. The organization also makes appeals to donors and supporters and regularly applies for grants, which he said can be a rigorous qualification process.

cor more information about AcE, visit www.angelflighteast. org or call 21R-PRU-19MM.