South Carolina Man completes Appalachian Trail fundraiser for Mercy Flight Southeast

Sept. 2, 2015 - PRLog -- Bob Koch of Greenwood, SC is back home after spending the last 10 and a half weeks walking over a thousand miles to complete his quest to hike the entire 2,180 mile Appalachian  Trail. Koch reached the summit of Mt. Katahdin, in Maine on Friday, August 28.

Last summer, while at midpoint on the Appalachian Trail, Koch was rushed to a Maryland hospital where he underwent emergency surgery to repair a perforated ulcer.  He resumed his hike in late June 2015 fully recovered and determined to finish.

Koch dedicated his hike to raising money for Mercy Flight Southeast (http://www.mercyflightse.org/), a network of volunteer pilots who fly patients to life-saving medical appointments after hearing about the organization from his friend Broadus “Bo” Bowman, a Mercy Flight Southeast pilot.

Like the other Mercy Flight Southeast pilots, Bowman donates his time, fuel and his airplane to fly patients and their families. While the pilots volunteer their time and aircraft, Mercy Flight Southeast relies on donations to pay for services that keep their passengers and pilots in the air.

Almost $8,000 has been pledged to Mercy Flight Southeast in honor of Koch’s effort. Donations are still being accepted. For information, please email archerbo2@gmail.com and use the subject line “Bob Koch Trail.” For more information about Mercy Flight Southeast, call (888) 744-8263 or visit www.MercyFlightSE.org.

About Mercy Flight Southeast

Mercy Flight Southeast, Inc. is a non-profit volunteer pilot organization that provides free air transportation throughout Florida by private aircraft to distant medical facilities when commercial air service is not available, impractical or simply not affordable. Mercy Flight Southeast is a member of Air Charity Network, an association of charitable aviation organizations comprised of more than 7,500 pilots and who represent over 90% of all charitable non-emergency flights flown in the nation. Mercy Flight Southeast has won the seal of approval from Independent Charities of America recognizing Mercy Flight Southeast as a good steward of the funds it generates from the public.