Giving the gift of health with donated Aeroplan Miles
Aeroplan Miles have been accessed by countless Canadians for travel, consumer items and special pastimes.
But for Raymond Jacobs of St. John’s, Aeroplan Miles provided something of incalculable value.
“The Aeroplan Beyond Miles program helped me to travel for specialized cancer treatment when I needed it most,” says Jacobs.
Beyond Miles, Aeroplan’s charitable pooling program, supports organizations and individuals to help people in their communities. Among other purposes, donated Aeroplan Miles may be used to help individuals needing to travel for medical assistance or other family emergencies. “This program is fantastic,” says Lynette Hillier, the executive director of the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Care Foundation in St. John’s. “It has contributed significantly in allowing our organization to help cancer patients and their families across the province.”
She say that as well as helping patients travel to St. John’s or Toronto for treatment, Beyond Miles has helped the foundation bring family members to patients undergoing radiation treatment in the Newfoundland capital — the only location in the province where such treatment is available.
“When you come in for radiation treatment, you’re up- rooting your life for six to eight weeks and having treatment from Monday to Friday,” she says. “Not everyone has the disposable income to go back home on the weekends. So we’ve brought children in to see Mum or Dad, and that’s almost as good as the medicine they’re receiving because it’s treatment for the soul.”
The foundation raised more than 787,000 Aeroplan Miles during its first campaign in 2012, a number topped up to 1.3 million miles by Aeroplan. The program includes a provision for Aeroplan’s contributing an additional 10 per cent once 90 per cent of the goal is reached. This year’s campaign, launched on April 8 — April is cancer awareness month — has set a target of 500,000 miles to help more cancer patients in need.
In Vancouver, Green Thumb Theatre is using the program to publicize the issue of cyberbullying. The plan, says artistic director Patrick MacDonald, is to collect enough donated Aeroplan miles to take the acting company of Wired, a new play on the subject, to Toronto. Green Thumb’s mandate involves mounting plays about social issues, with a focus on young audiences.
To date, close to 300,000,000 Aeroplan Miles have been donated to Beyond Miles.
There are many other ways to benefit from Aeroplan Miles, including redeeming them for reward flights, popular products and unusual experiences. Through the experiential rewards program, for instance, collectors can obtain passes to world-class car racing events or the Wimbledon tennis championships. Through Money Can’t Buy Rewards, they can purchase guitars autographed by such singers as Alanis Morissette or Keith Urban in support of War Child Canada.
For further information, visit www.aeroplan.ca.