If I have a giving
attitude, well, I could use my jet.
I don't have to not only donate to a
cause, you know, monetarily,
I could utilize my jet and I can actually
take the patient to their care.
So, you know, and you'll hear us always
say it's a line we use all the time.
Fill a seat with hope.
So if you have this asset, you're already
planned to go somewhere.
You're just taking along a special guest.
Welcome to Own the
Jet by Aspen Aero Group,
where we share perspectives from some of
the leading voices in
private jet ownership
and business aviation.
I'm your host, Derek Savage, along with
my co-host, Jason Spoor,
president of Aspen Aero Group.
Our guest today is Rebecca Frey Hewitt
from Corporate Angel Network.
Rebecca and her team help match cancer
patients with unused seats
on corporate flights so they can reach
the treatment that they need.
Join us as we dive
deep into the mechanics,
mindset and moments
that define jet ownership.
And together we'll learn
what it takes to own the jet.
Rebecca Frey Hewitt, thank you so much
for joining us on Own the Jet.
And thank you for being here on location
with us at Millionaire
in White Plains, New York.
Place to be. Thank you for
having me. I appreciate it.
Awesome. So for our viewers here and our
listeners on the audio version of this,
you're with Corporate Angel Network. Yes.
What's Corporate Angel Network?
Oh, what's Corporate Angel Network?
We are a nonprofit.
We provide free air
transportation to cancer patients
to put it in a nutshell of what we do.
But we're bigger than
that. We're here to save lives.
We're here to get people to treatment
that they can't access.
So if I have a jet, if I if I'm in charge
of a jet at a corporation
and, you know, it's it's got a regular
flight that goes
somewhere that you know about
and you've got a patient that needs
treatment somewhere or needs a procedure
or something where they have to make a
flight, you contact me and you say, hey,
can we put this person on one of the
empty seats on this flight
that you're already taking?
You don't have to do anything extra.
Nothing. And you and you help this person
get to their treatment, their treatment,
their whatever it is they need.
Whatever it could be surgery.
It could be regular
treatment. It could be a follow up.
It could be, you know, they've been in
remission and now they're going back
every year just for scans.
And I'm assuming
they're pretty excited about.
Oh, the right. It's completely excited.
I mean, these are you know, this is a
demographic that in most cases, yeah,
they would never be
flying on a private jet.
You guys allowing them to take that seat
takes away a big burden that
they have on their shoulder.
It's more comfortable.
They get there in less time.
They can avoid layovers, you know, and it
just makes it sometimes at the moment
that they're sitting
as a guest on your jet.
Yeah. They forget about what they're
really going through.
Yeah. So so how many how many of these
flights have you ever how long has
corporate angel network been around?
I guess that's that's probably been in
operation since 1981.
OK. First flight flew right
out of where we are on location.
Each man. Oh, really? OK. So it was here.
Yes. The flight flew from here.
And since the early 90s, we were actually
housed here on HPN grounds
to so our offices were here.
And we've done since starting, we're
about to approach, I would
say over sixty nine thousand,
but we are about to approach
our seventy thousand flight.
So I got to imagine, I mean, I'm now you
can't see it on on here, but outside this
window behind me are just
people's jets in hangers and like their
jets all over this this
airport that we're at.
And I got to imagine
there's a lot of empty seats.
I've got to imagine. Yeah. Like like most
of these most of these jets
have like what, eight, ten,
you know, seats in them.
And they're never full.
Majority of the nine times out of ten.
Yeah, they're never full.
I mean, even when I you speak to some of
our partners and we're discussing,
you know, the logistics of the flight or
we might have a patient
that might want to bring,
you know, their spouse, but they also
have a kid that they may
not want to leave home.
So we'll inquire, you know, how many
seats are available.
There's always a lot of seats available.
Yeah, always enough seats. But with that
said, so where are you
needing to get most of your patients to?
I'm sure that, you know, because a lot of
these guys might not be
heading in those directions.
I would say our top two, Houston, Texas,
for MD Anderson Cancer Center.
OK. New York City.
So flying in anywhere in the New York
area, Teeterboro, HPN, anywhere.
You can fly into Newark and they will
take it because they go to
Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Those are our top two.
Well, and how hard is it for these
patients to travel otherwise? Right.
How hard is it for them to drive cross
country being, you know,
in the condition that they're in or to
have to deal with all of
the stuff that's involved
in like a commercial flight and all?
I mean, that's that's
a it's a lot, right?
I mean, it's like it is. And it's not.
See, the thing is, is, you know, it's not
a one off for most of them.
This is if I'm if I'm accepted into a
clinical trial. Sure.
I have a requirement to be
there once a week, maybe.
Every three weeks, you
know, it's a back and forth.
And you can't interrupt that care.
And the hard part about it is
cancer is so widespread now.
We're at a point where everybody you
meet, know somebody close to them.
Yes, that's been affected.
So now it's even like
a waiting list game.
I mean, we've had a lot of people come to
us after a point where they've been doing
the drive for the first
two years of their treatment.
Yeah. But now they're they're weak.
It's tiring. It's taking a toll on them.
And even though their drive is maybe
three hours for us, that's not bad.
Take the drive. Right. Right.
For them, it's a different story with
that. Is there, you
know, who qualifies for this?
Is there a cap limit? Is there a bottom?
You know, how did anybody,
anybody can call anybody.
All you have to do is
have a cancer diagnosis.
I will say, you know, on the aircraft
that is provided to us and donated to us,
you would have to be ambulatory. Right.
When you say
ambulatory, what does that mean?
Walk on your own. Like you can use if you
have a walker that you need to use to get
you close to the plane and it folds and
you can get up the stairs.
OK. No, but you know, not saying you have
to be able to walk a certain steps,
you know, amount of steps at a time. But
ambulatory able to move on your own.
But you are allowed to
bring a companion with you. OK.
So you'll always, you
know, be able free of charge.
It doesn't cost the
patient. Doesn't cost the partner.
Gotcha. How do how do patients find out
about Corvangel network?
That's what we're trying to work on.
So right now we're at a point where
anybody I ask, how did you hear about us?
It's word of mouth. OK.
No matter how much we do on websites, on
social media postings.
Yeah. Patients are hearing about us when
they're receiving active treatment,
when they're at MD Anderson. So it's the
hospitals and the doctors and nurses
that have utilized us. But right now, the
main thing is word of mouth.
And I think that's why we try to put
ourselves in places that
we can just speak on it
because it's really the only way that it
gets out. Like on the jet.
Like right here.
Perfect. Yeah, we love it.
Yeah, that's what we're
trying to do. Spread the word.
So speaking of owning a jet.
So if I own a jet and I hear this and I
and I say, you know, well,
this this sounds like something that
would be, you know, maybe
maybe there there could be benefits for
me besides being a good person
and feeling good about it.
You guys are a nonprofit.
Is there a way like obviously, if I
wanted to make a donation,
that would be something that you guys
would want. Oh, absolutely.
To have. Right.
I you know, and we we do talk about that.
We you know, we put it
we put that out there.
But our biggest thing is
we want the flight lift.
You know, we have the need because we
know how many people are out there.
But there's so many ways to
help. Can you can, you know,
from monetary donations,
sponsorships, our fundraisers.
What events do you guys go to?
So we go to base NBA's
conference and exhibition.
We go to the regional forums and be a so
we go to Miami is where it is.
This coming year.
We attend the one here right
on location for context here.
In BAA is an industry organization of
people in Navy in private aviation.
And base is their big
conference they do every year.
Is it always in Vegas?
So when I when I joined
Corporate Angel Network,
I think that was 2022 and
it was in Orlando that year.
OK, but when we were in Orlando, they
committed to, I
believe, five years in Vegas.
OK, for people that aren't familiar, this
is it's kind of like a big trade show.
Right. It is. Yeah.
It's the industry's big trade show.
So you guys have a big presence at the
industry's big trade show.
This year, it's in Vegas
in October. Is that right?
Yes, I think it starts on the 14th.
Could be. Yeah.
Fourteen, fifteenth
and sixteenth. OK, great.
And you're going to be there and have a
big presence there this year.
We're there. We're
going to be there always.
We're so happy to be
there. That's our biggest.
Even it's NBA's biggest event.
But for us, it's I mean, we the
connections we make, the
thank yous we're able to give.
And we're always hosting our one annual
fundraiser during that time, too.
So it's big for us. OK.
What days that's on the that's always on
the Wednesday. Right. OK.
The Wednesday evening.
So it's kind of, you know, everybody's at
that base at the convention all day long.
Yeah. It ends at about four o'clock.
Yeah. And we're right across the street.
At the fountain blue. Yeah.
So you literally just walk out the doors
of the convention
center across the street.
And it's about. Yeah, it's a
two hour cocktail reception.
We have a silent auction.
We you know, our president
and CEO, Bob Stangroem, speaks
and the NBA at bowling usually speaks
during that event as well.
We do a live giving moment. It's fun.
It's about two hours of, you know,
giving, having a good time,
hearing more about our mission. Yeah.
And then you go out and hit
the streets of Vegas. Nice.
We don't make it too long because we know
it's that week is a week of events.
It's yeah. Vegas is full
of just business aviation.
The whole entire week.
What's the what's the
biggest silent auction gift?
What is it? Do you know?
It's a golf cart. It's a golf cart.
And it's a lot for every year.
Oh, OK. Really? OK.
So that's the item.
It's actually usually placed on the floor
of the convention during the time.
So you get to look at it.
Look at it. See that note.
You know, know that it's available. Yeah.
So is it is it is it styled
or branded in any specific way?
Or is it just like a nice golf?
No, it's just a nice golf cart.
OK. Can we put our stuff on?
I think I do. I'll
see who I could talk to.
I think I want to. Yeah, we can see.
We can sell space on the guy.
It'll be like, Oh, this car. We're done.
We're coming up with
some. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So, yeah. And then a bunch of really nice
vacation packages, some signed books.
We've done some signed
tennis rackets before.
So a bunch of items again, you know, big
thank you to everybody who supports us.
I mean, we never really know what we're
going to get, but we repeat stuff,
new things. It's a great silent auction.
Really, it's a nice setup.
Everything always goes. It's a good time.
That's cool. Nice.
How many patients do you typically work
with at any given time?
On an average, we get
about I'll go by month.
OK. We get anywhere
from 300 to 400 requests.
Oh, wow. So that's just giving you.
Wow. Yeah. That's an idea of the need.
Yeah, that's that's a lot of your
averaging right now.
About 135 to 45 flights per month.
OK, so kind of shows you
we we need the flight lift.
We are still saving lives.
We're still able to complete the mission,
but we have so much more to do.
Yeah. So with the flight lift,
I imagine we talked about jets.
And of course, you know, I'm sure that's
a large scale of it.
But what about the turboprop market?
What about getting I mean, who all do you
well, we never take flights from?
We never touch the turboprop market.
But I'm proud to say that we did we did
make a press release in September of 2024
that we are now accepting turboprops.
We're expanding our fleet, not expanding
the fleet because we
want to grow the mission.
So in order to do that, we have to dip
into a couple of buckets.
We've never dipped into before.
So, you know, after discussing the
logistics and, you know,
how can we make this work?
The only requirement if you're a
turboprop operator is that
it's two pilots and pressure
is OK. And that's just
based off of safety. Sure.
But yeah, we've expanded it.
We've, you know, been we went back
historically and reached out to a couple
of people who did want to partner with us
prior, but we weren't
accepting turboprops.
So we've done that outreach.
And it was just because the turboprops
are like smaller, typically, or not.
You know what? Not sure.
OK, to be honest, it was just one of
those rules that started off
and just happened to exist.
And, you know, it's it's not a matter of
course, we're corporate angel network.
So we've really dealt with corporations
and their aircrafts and their companies.
But when you look at the mission, if I if
I'm going to sit here and
say I want to save lives,
right. Can't just limit it. Right.
Right. Exactly. And
we're going to expand.
And when, you know, all heads came
together, you know, it's been amazing.
To have our president and CEO join us.
He joined us last year, 2024. Right.
And his name is Bob Stangeroom. OK.
Well known in the aviation industry has
years in here, you know.
So he came with this
knowledge that we needed.
And he came in with this.
What can we do to
increase the flight lift?
What are we doing now?
And what can we do better?
Yeah. So when we kind of looked, you
know, we looked at the
layout and we were like,
well, this is all we take.
We've had people reach out
saying they want a partner.
Yeah. But we didn't accept the
partnership because
somewhere written somewhere.
We couldn't. Yeah. Yeah.
So now we couldn't
find the reason why not.
Yeah. Sure. But it's being done. Nice.
You know, expanded to some commercial
airlines and donations of
some vouchers that we can use.
And, you know, looking out for, you know,
that's where the
monetary donations come in.
If, you know, they come in, you know, we
are putting that in a
bucket where if we can't find
you a corporate flight, which we work so
hard to try and do, if you're able to fly
commercially and not to immunocompromise,
we can purchase you a commercial ticket.
So that's where the growth is coming with
the corporate angel network.
It wasn't really
something we were doing before.
But now we're doing it. Yeah.
And we were talking earlier, it's not
just corporations, right?
It's like if I'm an entrepreneur, if I
own a large company or,
you know, some kind of,
I don't know, let's let's just say I'm a
rich person with a jet. Right.
And and I want, you know, and I'm hearing
about corporate angel
network and well, I'm not a
corporation. So, oh, well, but you're
you're saying we want the flights.
For example, we have a group of guy
friends, you know, all of
them just have money, you know.
So they went and came together and bought
a jet. They bought an
aircraft and they kind of share it.
They rotate it as buddies. They're kind
of like, oh, you know, this
is my week, so I'm going to
take it, you know, and this is my week.
So that's how they kind
of have their calendar.
Okay.
Who has it on the week. So not in one of
them was like, on my weeks,
if I'm not doing anything,
I want to help Ken. Yeah.
So it was no.
Well, I mean, I'm just thinking about
this. Like if I'm in their seat, right?
Right.
And I have the ability to help somebody
in that way. One, I'm going
to be able to know that I'm
doing my part to help people. Right.
Which makes me feel good
about things. But two, it's like,
I might make a new friend.
I think that's what people need to hear.
They need to hear that side of that. Yes,
you're doing your part in giving back,
right? You are. You're
filling a seat with hope. That's
our saying. You're, you know, saving a
life, but you don't know
who you can meet. And for me,
I've been sitting here this whole time
and I probably even
haven't smiled this much. But for
me, that's the part that I love about it.
Because that's when we get the phone
calls from the patient
saying it was just the best experience.
They sat with me, they
listened to me, you know,
because I think there's a negative stigma
around individuals
who own private jets or
aviation. You know, so your average
person doesn't think that these, that
they want to do good.
Yeah. Right.
But they do. And then when they get that
experience to sit on their aircraft and
talk to them and feel
like it's just normal and it's just
natural. Yeah. I don't think people
understand what that means
to the patient. Yeah. And we see it
because we get essays long
of thank yous and stories and,
you know, pictures of the whole crew with
the patient. Yeah. So
it's amazing. And that's the
bright side. And I'm sure that goes both
ways too. I'm sure the people
who own the jets and fly the
jets and operate the jets, that they're
happy to make the connection
as well. I mean, that I would
be, you know, if it were my jet, I would
be like, yeah, come on.
Yeah. And, you know, sometimes,
sometimes, you know, a lot of the
flights, the person who owns it isn't on
the flight sometimes,
not always, but you're, you're, you're
making a difference because you've
offered your aircraft,
whether you're on it or not, you're doing
great. We appreciate you.
We want more people like you.
Yeah. And we just, you know, we just want
to help. And it's,
again, you know, and I think,
I think what might block it sometimes
too, is what's the legalities behind
this? Like, you know,
what am I getting into? You know, is this
going to cost me? Is this something
extra? That's certainly
a question that, you know, yeah. Do I
need to have some kind of
waiver special? Yeah. Is there
like an insurance you get in or
something? No, like, so that's all I can
really say to them is
you're already operating. It's just one
person you're adding to the
manifest. We've handled that
side. If you have a waiver that you
specifically have for your
passengers on your aircraft,
we will make sure our passengers sign it.
We will have them do whatever
it is you need them to do to
get on. Just in terms of liability. Yeah.
So that has sometimes
blocked it, but then once the
conversation is had and they kind of
understand it, or they meet
somebody else who is a partner
and you know, they're like, listen, it's
a breeze and you just feel
so amazing once you're done.
And then that person will come back and
say, oh, I talked to so
and so, and he just did a
corporate angel network flight. I'm
ready. Yeah. You know, so
sometimes it's them speaking to a
partner already that kind of explains to
them how simple it is. Yeah.
And we will cater to all of
our partners. Some are very, you know,
you, you can show up whenever
you want. You can, you know,
we'll, we'll depart whenever you need us
to, you know, it's all
different types. And then there's
some that it's very strict. I'm going for
business. You know, I
need that passenger here
two hours before we will make sure all of
that is done. Don't ever
worry about it. Yeah. You know,
like we'll make it easy for them. We just
want them to open the
door and let them get on. So
you're telling me a story about somebody
that needed a transplant.
Can you, can you go into
that for us? Sure. So we had a one year
old boy, a little over
one. Um, his mother and father
reached out to us. They had been waiting
for a liver transplant for a
very long time. And that's,
um, timely. Like you have to get there
when they need you there. You
have to, so we were able to,
because when somebody, when a liver
becomes available, it's like, this
thing's on ice. Yeah.
Time to go. Yeah. And of course, cancer
related, you know, his, his cancer
diagnosis kind of led to,
you know, this liver failure and needing
the transplant. Yeah. So,
um, it wasn't that easy.
It wasn't, we just need to go me, mom and
dad. No, it was, we need
to be there for a while
because post surgery of a transplant,
we'll have you there for
about six weeks or more. Right.
Because they've got to make sure it
doesn't get rejected. They've
got to give them all kinds of
medication, right? All sorts of. So kind
of unique scenario, because
this was, we need to get more
than the normal amount of people that we
get to treatment. We need to
get the whole family there.
Gotcha. So he also had a newborn sibling.
Oh wow. Right. So mom is
dealing with the sibling.
Yeah. This diagnosis as well. You know,
you're battling. I don't
want to just have dad take him.
Yeah. You know, we can, we all go, is
there. So we ended up
getting them, um, via net jet.
So this is a part of our donation. Great.
So monetary is also net
jet hours that we love and
accept with open arms, because sometimes
we do have the need of
putting a very immunocompromised
patient on a plane by themselves. So in
this instance, we were
able to pack up the whole
family, get them there at whatever time
they needed to get there,
whatever day they needed to
get there with all of their stuff
included. So no real
restriction on you can only bring,
you know, one bag being that they were
staying there for six
weeks. So we got them there. Um,
they were there for the six weeks. They
reached out towards the
end. Um, and everything was
successful, doing good, got them back.
And he's in remission. He's doing
amazing. And we get to see
that. So that's a win for me because, you
know, yes, there's longer
journeys that we follow where
it's not that, you know, we haven't had
to fly this patient ever
again. It was a one and done,
but it was a win. And even though we love
what we do and we want to
do it every day, we went,
we love to hear that you don't need our
service anymore. Oh yeah.
You know, so it was a huge one
for us. It was a celebration. You know,
we follow his page. We, we
look at him growing, you know,
now he has this cute little Mohawk. He's
just full of life. And that's
a win for us. Yeah. For sure.
What would it have cost them to do that
on their own? Would they
made it to it if we didn't offer
that? Yeah. So I wonder, so that's,
that's the wins for us. And
you know, even if, you know,
that scenario definitely could have been
a corporate flight. I
think it was just the rush
and the need. And it was like, well,
let's not take too long looking at
schedules, reaching out,
seeking approvals. We have these net jet
hours that kind people
donated. Yeah. Let's use that.
And this is something that's, that's
personal to you as well. I mean, like,
can, can you talk about
how you got involved with corporate angel
network and, and kind of
like your reason for wanting to
do this? Yeah. And I'll make sure I don't
get emotional. So my
reason for wanting to do this
is I lost my father to pancreatic cancer
and anybody who knows
cancer already is just a wicked
disease and it's disgustingly spread out
across this world. Yeah.
Pancreatic cancer comes and
takes you out really quickly,
unfortunately. And nowadays
I see the change in medicine,
but when my dad was diagnosed with it, we
had four months and he was a
retired diplomat and he was
living in Ethiopia where he's from. So
there wasn't the right
care and not saying we don't
currently don't do any international
flight, but bringing him here to the US,
was too late after wasting so much time
in an area that didn't have the
treatment. By the time that
he got here, it was too late. So, you
know, I lost my dad at 15 and I lived a
life of trying to figure
out what can I do to give back to the
cancer community. But in my
wild years, remember I lost
my 15. I kind of didn't really know what
I wanted to do. I needed to
get my life together. Sure. So
did a couple, you know, odd end jobs and,
you know, found my
place in administrative
and then looked up. I needed a change and
I literally, you know,
don't anybody think I'd
just walk out of jobs, but I left my job
before a corporate
angel. I've done it before.
Because I did not feel complete. I didn't
feel like I was doing
what made me happy. Yeah. And
it worked out. I really feel like
everything happens for a
reason. And they had an opening
as a flight scheduler and I kind of
looked at it at first and
was like, I could do this in my
sleep. Let me apply for it. You know,
it's something. But then
before my interview with them
is when I really looked in to who they
were. Yeah. And I said,
Oh, this is it. Like, yeah,
if I can't get this now, mind you, it was
a temporary position
they were looking for.
Okay. But I'm going to go in there and
I'm going to give it my all.
Because this is what I want
to do for the rest of my career. Yeah.
And if it could be that,
I hope that it is. So I'm
connected to it mainly because of my
father. I have two sisters
that had a cancer diagnosis
during COVID around the COVID time. So
that was difficult as well. I mean,
they're great. They're
clear of it all. But it's close to my
family and you know, on my
mom's side, on my dad's side.
And I just want to give back to that
community. It hurts. It's
hard. Yeah. And you know,
my dad was fortunate enough to be able to
get himself to where he needed to be.
But not everybody is. Yeah. So if I can
work to do that, so you can
get to this modernized care,
because treatment has changed now from
when 1998, my dad died to
now treatment is different. I
watched people live with the cancer he
had years. So, you know, if I can get
people to that treatment
and give them longer lives, not just me,
the whole team, I mean,
we're a small but mighty team.
We're five employees. Yeah. But we may,
we just want to make magic
happen. We want to fill seeds
with hope. That's, I can't think of a,
yeah, that's, that's a noble
car. I can't think of any better
reason to, to want to, you know, fill a
seat. Right. And I hope
with this, that, that it gets
out there to some people and I hope so
too. Yep. Realize. I hope so
too. What's in the future for,
for for the future. Because, you know,
you're talking about,
well, now, now we've got,
we're opening it up to the turbo props.
This year is going to be a big year for
private jet ownership.
Right. There's, you know, we've, we've
talked in other, in other
shows that we've done about
bonus depreciation and people like now is
like the right time to
get into private aviation.
If you've been waiting, what would you
say to all the people
that are like new jet owners?
I would want you to be thinking about
what more I can do with this
asset that I own. So what more
can I do if I have, if I have a giving
attitude, well, I could use
my jet. I don't have to not
only donate to a cause, you know,
monetarily, I could utilize
my jet and I can actually take
the patient to their care. So, you know,
and you'll hear us always say it's a line
we use all the time,
fill a seat with hope. So if you have
this asset, you're already
planning to go somewhere.
You're just taking along a special guest.
Yeah. I can't think of a
better reason to fill an empty
seat on a jet than, uh, than saving a
life. That's right.
Right. So getting a child back
home to his family, right? The father
back home to his wife and his kids. So
it's corporate angel
network. We'll link to the website and
the social channels, uh, in
the, in the description of the
episode. Thank you so much for joining
us, Rebecca, and join us next time for
another episode of own
the jet. Thank you for watching own the
jet. If you want to see
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