Shining World Compassion Award Recipient: Alabama Puppies Rescue Flights – Flying Puppy to Safety, with Caring Love

Michael, a professor at the University of Central Florida, owns Columbia Air LLC and heads the not-for-profit organization Alabama Puppy Rescue Flights. In the past decade, he has saved over 7,000 puppies by transporting them for adoption in Florida.

“Eleven years ago, in 2010, I got an email from somebody asking me if I could transport some puppies from South Carolina up to Delaware. A few months prior to that, I lost my German Shepherd dog to cancer. He was only 5.5 years old. So, I said yeah, that’s a good reason to fly. So, it was my first rescue flight in September 2010.”

“I moved to DC in 2014, and found that Alabama Rescue has a plethora of dogs and pups, mostly pups, that they cannot get adopted out there.” Michael Young has been airborne most weekends since he founded Alabama Puppy Rescue Flights. These forty-minute flights save vulnerable canine-people babies from enduring long, stressful road trips.

Putting his love of flying and puppies together in the best possible way, Mr. Young relies on a loyal crew of pilots and volunteers to help with this noble mission. “I would contact 12 or 15 pilots, just from my flight crew. I have a couple dozen folks on my flight crew. The most difficult part is just coordinating everything, getting everybody who can fly, everybody who can help on the flight crew, and help on the ground crew.” “Mike actually reached out to me as a fellow pilot, and I find the work really rewarding.”

Our most Beloved Supreme Master Ching Hai: “Happily present Alabama Puppy Rescue Flights the Shining World Compassion Award, plus US$10,000, as a humble token of loving support for your benevolent efforts, with wholehearted gratitude and best wishes, in Heaven’s grace. May God Bless and shield you, and all those who are helping to save precious lives and the sweet animal-people.”