Exonian Profiles
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Modern-Day Angel Jay Weinberg ’36 and the Corporate Angel
Network
There are many angels behind the Corporate Angel Network, a not-for-profit organization that has arranged more than 10,000 flights for cancer patients on corporate jets. Chief among them is co-founder and president Jay Weinberg ’36. A cancer survivor himself, Jay founded the Corporate Angel Network in 1981 with a group of friends who recognized there might be a natural fit between businesses that often fly corporate jets with empty seats and cancer patients who need to travel for treatment. In the first year, the Network recruited 50 corporations and arranged for 24 flights. Today the Network arranges more than 100 free flights a month with the help of 550 companies. Sixty-five volunteers handle the logistics of matching cancer patients with corporate flight schedules out of the Network’s office in Westchester, NY. The woman who flew the Network’s 10,000th flight in April of 1998 is typical. A 42-year-old mother with young children, she needed to travel from Richmond, VA, to New Jersey for specialized breast cancer treatment. The Network made it possible for her to fly more than 100 times to New Jersey and back in one day so she would not be away from her children. Her protocol has now been FDA approved so she can have treatment at home. When Jay retired from his business running an Avis franchise 10 years ago, he imagined his work with the Network would be something to keep him “a little busy.” Instead, he has a full-time job; both he and his wife, Marian, work 40 hours a week for the Network without pay. “I wish this wasn’t a full-time job. I wish conquering this disease could be solved,” Jay says. “Unfortunately, there are too many people who need us.” Jay and Marian celebrate their 58th wedding anniversary this year, but they show no signs of slowing down. Marian designed the scheduling software for the Corporate Angel Network, and as this issue of the Bulletin went to press, they were off to the annual National Business Aviation Association Convention to spread the word about their extraordinary efforts on behalf of cancer patients. For more information about the Network, visit: www.corpangelnetwork.org or call (914) 328-1313. —Katherine Towler |
