AARP The Magazine spolights Beach man for his good deeds

By Hattie Brown Garrow
The Virginian-Pilot

Ed Boyer's love of recreational flying blossomed into a second career running a nonprofit organization.

More than two decades later, the Virginia Beach man oversees a network of national programs dedicated to providing charitable medical air transportation.

Mercy Medical Airlift, based out of an office park on Haygood Road, is the umbrella organization for more than a dozen different charities. Altogether, they served more than 11,000 people from November 2006 to October 2007 alone - a public benefit of nearly $5 million.

The 70-year-old Boyer, Mercy's president and chief executive officer, is the guiding force.

He said his Christian faith and a love for assisting people in need of medical treatment drive his efforts.

Boyer's dedication to making a difference will be recognized Monday during a ceremony in New York City. AARP The Magazine selected him and nine others for its 2008 Inspire Awards.

"He's one of our unsung heroes," said Gabrielle Redford, the magazine's features editor.

A photograph of Boyer and a short article appear in the magazines's January/February issue, which will be mailed to 34 million readers at the end of November. The periodical is the flagship publication of the nonprofit AARP, which advocates for people 50 and older.

"It gives an opportunity to highlight what so many people are doing around the country," Boyer said. "Charitable medical aviation - that's what it's all about. I'm not a glory hound."

Other 2008 recipients include music legend Gladys Knight, who supports diabetes research, and Helen Thomas, 87, a longtime White House journalist who continues to defend the First Amendment.

Each year for the past five or so, AARP The Magazine has hired a researcher to cull through newspapers and other media to find people who have improved the world in some way. Magazine staffers select 10 from that group to honor each winter.

Actors Robert De Niro and Michael J. Fox, as well as other lesser-known people, have received Impact Awards, which were renamed Inspire Awards this year.

"Ed was somebody I had never heard of, yet the impact of his work was just tremendous," Redford said.

Boyer first realized the need for services such as those provided by Mercy Medical Airlift in the early 1970s. A Northern Virginia resident at the time, he and other members of a recreational flying club were asked to transport people needing medical attention.

The number of people requiring visits to specialized treatment centers was far greater than Boyer realized. In many cases, he discovered, those patients couldn't afford the cost of commercial airfare.

Boyer and his friends continued to informally fly those in need over the next decade. Mercy Medical Airlift was incorporated and officially deemed a nonprofit organization in 1984.

"It started out as a little shoebox on my dining room table," Boyer said of his initial filing system.

In 1992, Boyer retired early from his job so he could devote more time to Mercy. He was director of engineering for the newly renamed U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at the time.

A few years later he moved the organization to Virginia Beach, where his wife of 19 years had lived.

The organization struggled to make ends meet for the first 15 years, but has since "grown tremendously," Boyer said.

Under his leadership, Mercy has gone from having no budget to an annual budget of $2.6 million for this fiscal year.

Boyer, who no longer flies, said he feels fortunate to have had a part in making the charitable medical air transportation system what it is today. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Air Charity Network, a national association originally named Angel Flight America.

The Linkhorn Bay Condominiums r esident has no plans for a second retirement. On the contrary, he is thinking of ways he can expand Merc y.

Richard Lov e, board chairman of Angel Flight Virginia, a part of Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, considers Boyer a "visionary."

"He lives and breathes this. This is his passion," said Love, of Little Neck. "He's done an amazing job with it."

Information: www.mercymedical.org and www.aarpmagazine.org/people.

Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562, hattie.brown@pilotonline.com