Bland County Nursing and Rehabilitation

Bland Nursing Center patients get bird’s-eye view

By BILL ARCHER - Bluefield Daily Telegraph

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BASTIAN, Va. — Kim Stafford, activities coordinator of the Bland County Nursing and Rehab Center in Bastian believes that her job is to make wishes come true. It took a lot of finagling, but on Friday she put all the pieces of a rather complex puzzle together to make one resident’s wish come true.

“I’ve been working on this request since February,” Stafford said. “I was trying to get one of our residents involved in some of our activities, but I wasn’t having any success. When I asked, the only thing the resident wanted to do was fly.”

There are no airports in Bland County, and transports in and out of the nursing and rehab center are by ground transport, so Stafford called the closest airport — Mercer County Airport — to see if airport officials knew of anyone who could take a resident on a flight. Airport officials told Stafford to contact Chandler Swope, and said that he has helped other groups by taking them for rides in his helicopter.

“Mr. Swope’s helicopter was being serviced when Kim contacted him, but he agreed to do it as soon as he got it back,” B.J. Scott, director of nursing at Bland County Nursing and Rehab said. “It was supposed to happen earlier this week, but Mr. Swope had to postpone until (Friday). When we saw the helicopter coming in, it was just spectacular.”

Volunteers helped load the passengers in groups of three. Scott said that Swope took 12 residents for a ride as well as another 10 staff and family members. “The residents who flew ranged in age from the oldest who was 96 to the youngest who was 40. I went up first. It was fantastic!”

“A couple of the residents had been overseas during World War II, and they had flown back then, but most of the residents had never flown before,” Stafford said. “Mr. Swope took them over Bland County, Bluefield and Wytheville. One of the residents cried with excitement over the joy of being able to fly. We provided a lunch to show our appreciation to Mr. Swope.”

Swope said he was glad to be able to take the residents on a helicopter ride. “I enjoyed doing it for them,” he said. “I’ve been flying since I was 5 years old, and I still enjoy finding any excuse I can to fly in my helicopter. Every chance I get, I try to get into the air. I gave the residents about two hours worth of rides. My favorite line is that every time I take someone up for a ride, I get to sit up front.”

Stafford and Scott both expressed the appreciation of the residents and staff to Swope. Like the resident who wanted to fly, Stafford said she was apprehensive about flying, but she finally did it and said she was glad she did.