Nonprofit working to help families of Owen Co. helicopter crash victims

A new nonprofit, Supporting Shields, hopes to support the families of first responders who were killed or injured in the line of duty. It didn’t take long for the new nonprofit to see a call to action after the crash involving Air Evac Lifeteam 133.

“Unfortunately, that community was hit hard when they lost all three crew members that day,” said Andrew Doyle, founder of Supporting Shields.

Doyle had experience previously working with the Caleb Conley Foundation. After starting Supporting Shields in late September, he jumped into action on October 7 when he heard about the crash. He wanted to help the families as quickly as possible.

“These three families were shocked,” Doyle said. “It was a tragic loss all of a sudden. All three crew members got in that helicopter to go pick up that patient and didn’t know that would be the last chance they would be on the ground.”

Monday night, Supporting Shields posted a t-shirt on Facebook. With 80% of the proceeds going towards the families of the crash victims, the shirt sales passed $25,000 by Tuesday night.

“I was absolutely shocked,” Doyle said. “With Supporting Shields being so new, I was shocked that it took off as well as it did and as quick as it did.”

So far, Doyle has received more 970 orders, ranging from Kentucky and Tennessee to New York and California. Doyle said this experience has also taught him just how tight-knit the air evac groups are.

“I was talking to some of my friends at air evac last night, and she was saying that, you never know who you’re going to run into. You might be working with them tomorrow. You might have worked with them yesterday, and might not see them for a week, and then they’re on your crew again.”

“It’s one big, tight-knit community. Like I said, even people all the way from the bases down in Tennessee have been ordering shirts,” Doyle said/

You can learn more about Supporting Shields at supportingshields.com . You can also buy a shirt by clicking here .