A Mercy Flight helicopter from Benefis Health System in Great Falls landed in the Ulm School yard on Friday, November 15, 2024 - but not to save a life. This visit was to educate the students about what they do.
Ulm school’s Blue Hawk Booster Club is working to get a ‘community hero’ to visit the students each month to inspire them.
Having Mercy Flight visit the school on Friday was the first of these community hero visits.
The students had the opportunity to ask the Mercy Flight team questions, explore the helicopter, and learn about the ways they help people.
“The best teacher of all is experience. I mean, we will talk as teachers all day long, but I’ll bet you kids will remember that for the rest of their life,” said Russ McDaniel, Ulm School principal.
“When we do our assemblies once a month, [the goal is] to bring in somebody to be a guest speaker, a local hero. It could be there's local heroes in education, they're everywhere, just kind of a career hero day. And so, we brought [Mercy Flight] out, not only so we could thank them, but so then they can give a little talk to our kids and maybe inspire one of them to be on a mercy flight somewhere,” explained McDaniel.
Ulm School relies on support from not only their community, but also outside communities and businesses.
McDaniel said he is grateful to the Mercy Flight team for allowing their small school to have this opportunity.
“Being a small rural school, it is tougher than people think. It is really, really hard to fund these little schools, and it takes people like Benefis that are willing to. [It's] the local heroes, the community that comes together to give our kids opportunity and inspire them to do something great, too. It's a community effort and we just all work together, and I just think it's an awesome thing for our kids,” said McDaniel.
