Patients are worried and stressed. Yet, when they see the Houston Ground Angel's shirt, with logo & their name, they exhale. These funds will assist in purchasing shirts for new volunteers.

Volunteers use their own car/gas to provide medical transportation to local residents in Greater Houston and those flying in from out of town. With gas prices going up, we would like to provide gas cards to our volunteers.

The demand for services is growing rapidly. If a patient requests transportation, and one of our 332 volunteers is not available to take this request, which can happens during peak hours, these funds will cover Uber for the patient.

Houston Ground Angels is seeking this goal to assist in covering salaries for our staff.

These fund will go toward keeping the lights on.

Fundraisers

This goal provides shirts, w/logo & volunteer's name, and window flags for volunteers, so patients feel secure in recognizing our volunteers. Please scroll down.

This annual goal will provide gas cards for our volunteers, to help cover the expense of gas. Please scroll down,

Houston Ground Angels seeks to reach this goal to help cover utilities/phones, etc. and two staffs' salaries, Please scroll down.

This is the goal for Houston Ground Angels to raise in 2024. Please scroll down.

Houston Ground Angels

Houston Ground Angels Began with One Phone Call 

The inspiration for Houston Ground Angels began with a simple phone call. In 2000, Kathy Broussard (shown here at an Astro's game) a private pilot who volunteered to fly patients to Houston for medical treatments, received a call from one of her clients, Eva T. Tearfully, Eva informed Kathy that she was cancelling her trip to Houston because she could not afford the cost of ground transportation between the airport and M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital. Kathy refused to cancel and kept telling Eva to come that they would work something out. Finally, Kathy told Eva to come to Houston and she would personally drive her to her appointment. Eva said OK, and Kathy flew her into Houston. 

The notion that someone from out of town would not be able to receive the medical treatment they needed in Houston simply because they could not afford the taxi fare between the airport and the Medical Center was too much for Kathy. She was determined to make fellow Houstonians aware of this simple, vital need. She placed a small ad in the volunteer section of the local newspaper, and Houston Ground Angels was born. According to early records, volunteers came forward in large numbers and completed approximately 300 missions in what remained of that year. A mission is defined as a a request for transportation, either for local patients or those flying in or out.

Small Towns Do Not Usually Offer Needed Treatments

Many people like Eva, who live in small towns that do not offer cancer treatments or have only limited care hospitals, want to come to Houston's renowned Texas Medical Center, but funds are usually low, and cancer treatments are not cheap, even with the best insurance. Moreover, considering arriving in the fourth largest city (Houston)  in the country can be frightening, where these patients do not know anyone nor their way around. Yet, this is where Houston Ground Angels and their partners step-up to help and become a welcoming friendly face.

Houston Ground Angels partners with Angel Flight, Pilots for Patients, Dow Chemical, and private pilots that fly these patients to Houston free of charge. Then the Houston Ground Angel volunteers meets the patients at the private or public airports and provides ground transportation to the Texas Medical Center, other medical centers in and around Houston, or their hotel. When the patients are ready to go home, the process is reversed. 

Providing Transportation for Local Patients 

Since January 2022, Houston Ground Angels provides local patients complimentary critical medical transportation to their appointments. For many local residents, without Houston Ground Angels they would not be able to make their medical appointments or their treatments. Transportation for all can be the difference between life and death, for without treatments the future may not be promising. 

Since its inception in 2001, Houston Ground Angels' volunteers have completed over 50,000 missions, and each year the number of requests for transportation (missions) grows. 

With gas prices continuing to go up, you could help us help all patients needing medical transportation by donating funds for gas cards or any of the areas listed on our fundraising pages.  