FORTY FORT, Pa. -- Life Flight pilot Scott Walters from Shavertown has spent a lot of his time in airport hangars, so his colleagues say it makes sense to have a fundraiser for him at an airport.
Walters is battling AML, acute myeloid leukemia. There's a fundraiser to help his family out this weekend.
Walters is married with five children. He has a loving family at home, but he has another loving family at the Life Flight base at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.
Coworker Jason Ward says there are a lot of people who owe their health, and in some cases their lives, to Walters, a longtime medical helicopter pilot.
"You move in such quick motion because they're really critically ill. You get them where they need to go. They don't ever really know the people behind it," explained Jason Ward, flight paramedic.
The Life Flight crew, pilots, nurses, and paramedics, met Newswatch 16 to tell us about a fundraiser they've put together for Walters to help with his extensive medical costs called "Flying High for a Cause."
It's Saturday, September 22, at the Wyoming Valley Airport in Forty Fort.
Flight nurse Amanda Arthur says putting an event together for him, along with his family, is the least they can do.
"You spend 12-hour days, sometimes 13 or 14, with people, and you get to know about them, meet their families, learn their likes and dislikes. You get to be like family," Arthur said. "The pilot is kind of your go-to, right? He's the guy that's going to take you up and put you down on the ground in one piece."
The guy known as "Give-it-a-shot Scott" is fighting hard, but his coworkers say some complications have kept him in the hospital for long stays. And then last month, his family experienced another blow, when Walters' father was killed in a car crash.
Walters' absence at Life Flight, they note, is huge, but they hope they can help the Walters family out with the fundraiser. They think he'll be pleased with how they're going about it.
"Scott's an airport guy. He's a Navy guy. He loves aviation. Just the perfect place to have it," Ward said.
Saturday's benefit will include raffles, prizes, food, face painting, and of course, planes and a Life Flight helicopter on display.