Wings of Eagles, Wings of Angels — Safety Nets For Families of Seriously Ill Children

When a family faces the challenge of caring for a seriously ill child, many emotional, physical, and financial stresses are involved. This type of strain can have lasting effects on the entire family.

Over the last three decades, two North State families have turned their pain into purpose, honoring their children by supporting families who have children receiving out-of-town medical treatment.

Wings of Eagles in Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Tehama, Sutter and Yuba Counties

Georgia Alvarez lost her son Joseph to a rare form of leukemia in January of 1991. In June of 1993, she founded the Wings of Eagles Organization with a mission to help seriously ill children in Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Tehama, Sutter, and Yuba counties. Since its inception, the organization has raised over one million dollars to provide aid to families struggling with the expenses of caring for a seriously ill child.

The families of (top) Lizzie and (bottom) Rafe and Liam have been helped by the generous support of Wings of Angels and Wings of Eagles.

Wings of Angels in Shasta, Siskiyou, Trinity, Lassen and Modoc Counties

Dan and Donna Araiza founded The Alyssa Araiza Wings of Angels Organization in 2002 after losing their 9-year-old daughter, Alyssa,  to leukemia. Since then, they’ve helped hundreds of families in the Shasta, Siskiyou, Trinity, Lassen, and Modoc counties.

Support for families of children with a variety of diagnoses

Although both organizations work primarily with families whose children have cancer, they have also helped families whose children have been in serious accidents, had heart transplants, lung transplants, renal failure, and more.

With a shortage of pediatric specialists in Northern California, families must travel to Sacramento, the Bay Area, or Southern California — sometimes several times a month — so their children can get the medical care they need.  The financial and emotional strain this places on these families can be devastating.

Working parents not only experience a decrease in income from the time lost at work, but they also incur higher costs due to recurrent trips required for their child’s specialist medical care. Single-parent households and families with multiple children are often hit the hardest.

Helping with expenses not covered by insurance

Wings of Angels routinely assists more than 25 families every month, helping with expenses not covered by insurance such as gas, tolls, food, and other necessities when a child receives out-of-town medical care. “Each case is looked at on an individual basis,” says Donna Araiza. “We’ve paid utility bills, we’ve paid rent, we’ve bought tires for cars, and had cars repaired.”

Hospital care kits offer comfort during crisis

It’s common for families of children with serious medical conditions to face emergency hospitalizations. In rural Northern California, this typically means being transported to a hospital several hundred miles away. Parents often leave with their children in a helicopter or an air ambulance, bringing nothing with them but the clothes on their back.

Wings of Eagles board member Christopher Mayer explains that, along with monetary assistance, the organization provides hospital care kits for parents. The kits consist of “things that you don’t think about in the moment of crisis,” says Christopher. “The stuff that you don’t think to pack.” Items like shampoos, conditioners, brushes, mirrors, toothbrushes, and toothpaste can make a massive difference to a parent or caregiver who has to leave their home in a hurry and stay in a hospital far away from home with their child.

Generosity from the community keeps these organizations going

Wings of Angels still holds fundraisers throughout the year, with their biggest one, the Bowl-a-Thon, held every spring. According to Donna, it took only three days to fill all the slots for the upcoming Bowl-A-Thon in April.

Wings of Angels also puts on a spaghetti feed in the fall and works with several local service agencies, such as rotary clubs, car clubs, and nonprofits, to raise money. Last September 17, which would have been Alyssa’s 30th birthday, the organization held its first “Burn Out Cancer” car show hosted by Everything Medical in Redding.

Georgia Alvarez retired from Wings of Eagles in 2021 but is still involved on an advisory level. She says she is proud of the organization’s “28-year legacy of success in bringing awareness of childhood illnesses and cancers and being able to help and financially assist hundreds of families.”

Wings of Eagles also partners with the North Valley Community Foundation to fund families who apply for assistance. Christopher says, “Even though we are not doing active fundraising in the community as much as we were, we are still alive and kicking and welcome donations more than ever.”

Both organizations have an application process, and applications can be found on their respective websites. For more information on how to apply for assistance, make a donation, or volunteer, please visit: Wings of Eagles: wingsofeagles.org and Wings of Angels: aawoa.com