16-year-old pilot flies medical supplies to rural hospitals

By Matthew Barakat The Associated Press 20 hrs ago

McLEAN — TJ Kim can’t play lacrosse — COVID-19 took the sport away. And at age 16, he can’t drive alone. ... But Kim can fly. And he’s turned his flying lessons into missions of mercy, bringing desperately needed supplies to rural hospitals in need.

Each week, he carries gloves, masks, gowns and other equipment to small hospitals. When he made his first delivery, March 27 to a 25-bed hospital in Luray, he was taken aback by the reception.

“They kind of conveyed to me that they were really forgotten about. Everyone was wanting to send donations to big city hospitals,” he said. “Every hospital is hurting for supplies, but it’s the rural hospitals that really feel forgotten.”

Like high school students across the country, Kim was disheartened when school and activities were shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus. In TJ’s case, the shutdown ended his lacrosse season before it ever really got started.

Kim, 16, a sophomore at Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland, brainstormed with his family in McLean, about ways to keep active, and to serve the community while he had the time. They settled on Operation SOS — Supplies Over Skies.

The most recent flight carried 3,000 gloves, 1,000 head covers, 500 shoe covers, 50 non-surgical masks, 20 pairs of protective eyewear and 10 concentrated bottles of hand sanitizer to Winchester to help supply a hospital in nearby Woodstock.

The goal, he said, is to make deliveries to all seven rural hospitals in Virginia defined as critical access hospitals. The flights will become progressively longer. If all goes according to plan, the final flight would take him to Clintwood in far southwest Virginia.

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