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Pilots in Central Florida are Flying Relief Missions to the Bahamas all this Week

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Volunteers in Central Florida are collecting and packing donated supplies to stock relief flights to the Bahamas.

Volunteers with Crossroads Alliance & Ministries at Ocala International Airport have been sorting donations of  bottled water and other first aid supplies. 

These will be driven to Fort Lauderdale Airport where Angel Flight volunteer pilots will fly them out to the Bahamas.

Angel Flight Director Steve Purello says most of these donations have ended up in North Eleuthera Island. 

"Now we have requests that things are needed, specific needs are needed in Freeport, Marsh Harbour and then just recently, today this morning, we just got Moore's Island which is a tiny, tiny little island that hasn’t been able to get services in between Grand Bahama and Abaco."

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Separately, two relief flights with Air Unlimited out of Sanford International Airport will carry more than 28,000 pounds of donations to the Bahamas on Tuesday.

Air Unlimited co-founder Chick Gregg says those donations are also being flown into North Eleuthera where they'll be helicoptered to other parts of the island nation.

“We had one trust donate a trailer-load of meals ready to eat, you know military MREs. It’s even dog food. We’ve gotten donations of probably a thousand pounds of dog food. There’s diapers, various drinks, but mostly water, bottled water.”

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Both groups are asking for monetary donations to pay for fuel and plane upkeep as they have more donations then they can currently fly out.
If you'd like to listen to the story, please click on the clips above.

Danielle Prieur is WMFE's education reporter.