Return to listing
AmeriCares lost a dear friend with the sudden passing of Doug Birdsall. From the very early days of AmeriCares work, Doug found ways to help us respond to emergencies around the world. A senior executive in the airline industry, Doug helped AmeriCares develop and maintain relationships with many airlines, enabling us to respond to natural disasters with greater speed and efficiency. Prior to retirement, he was SVP at Northwest where he was able to call on their philanthropic spirit to assist our work delivering essential medicines and supplies to people in need.
There are countless examples of Doug’s support for AmeriCares. Over the past 15 years our staff flew more than 5 million miles free of charge through the Northwest AirCares program. Immediately following the Southeast Asian tsunami in 2004, Doug helped us fly our emergency response staff to Sri Lanka and India, and with his assistance, Northwest also donated cargo space. Most recently, in response to the devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China in May 2008, Northwest flew two field hospitals to China that continue to serve hundreds of thousands of people impacted by the disaster.. Doug was always one of the first calls we would receive or make following an emergency. His caring spirit is inspiring.
We are grateful for Doug’s support for AmeriCares. His enthusiasm, commitment and compassion will be deeply missed by his family, including daughter and son-in-law Cheryl and Chip Skowron, and by his many friends at AmeriCares.