The year 2020 has been a rough one. At Atlantic, we’re so grateful to be able to turn the end of this crazy year around for many families this holiday season with a new tradition we call Atlantic Adopt A Family. Ten Atlantic locations were chosen this year and asked to go out into their communities and look for families that need help during the holidays to provide them with holiday meals and presents for their children. And what an incredible end to the year it was!

The locations that participated in the Atlantic Adopt A Family program this year include, Albuquerque, NM (ABQ), Birmingham, AL (BHM), Nashville, TN (BNA), Houston, TX (HOU), Los Angeles, CA (LAX), Chicago, IL (MDW), New Orleans, LA (MSY), Portland, OR (PDX), Oklahoma City, OK (PWA), and Teterboro, NJ (TEB). These locations partnered with local churches or community-assist programs to ensure they were finding a family through a reputable source that would benefit from additional assistance during the holidays. PDX and TEB even chose to select two families each, making a total of twelve families that were given a helping hand from the new Atlantic Adopt A Family program. Each family faced adversity in many ways. Their hardships ranged from homelessness due to wildfire, extended families taking care of each other with illnesses, struggles caused by COVID after-effects, single parent families trying to make ends meet, and deaths in families causing extreme life style changes.

Using Atlantic-allocated funds, each location was able to provide for their adopted family based on their particular circumstances and provide whatever they needed most. They were encouraged to deliver a Thanksgiving meal and while there, receive the children’s wish list for Christmas. Atlantic teams shopped together for the gifts on the wish list, wrapped them, and delivered them to the families the week before Christmas. Thanks to a partnership with local caterers, many were able to provide a second holiday meal when delivering the presents.

“The joy of giving was evident in each Atlantic employee’s face as they participated. It was an honor to help so many families this year. We are definitely planning to expand the program even greater next year.” stated Sue Sommers, Sr. Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Atlantic.

In some cases, the families visited the FBOs for a tour, met the Airport Fire Department, and visited with tenants to tour their jets. Some were even gifted an airplane or helicopter ride with a water salute. It is heart warming to see how our locations made this a truly magical experience for their adopted family. Atlantic is grateful and proud to have so many thoughtful employees that embraced this program full-heartedly.