Airline's Act Of Kindness Saves Ocean City Teams' Disney Trip

OCEAN CITY, NJ — The Ocean City High School cross country teams arrived at Philadelphia International Airport. The contingent of 79 was set to board a Frontier Airlines flight Thursday to Orlando for the Disney Cross Country Classic.

The team worked tirelessly to raise money for the trip the previous two years, operating multiple car washes and bagging groceries at Shop-Rite. But once they left for the airport, they realized things would get complicated.

As their bus departed from school, they realized their flight coming in from 6 to 9 p.m. Then it got delayed after 9 p.m.

"Then we figured out that our flight would be cancelled," boys coach Matt Purdue told MileSplit NJ. "We went to the flight counter and they said they would refund our tickets. We told the ticket agent we have about 80 people who need to get to Disney for a cross-country race. We're really not interested in a refund. They said the next flight was not until next Wednesday."

Purdue, assistant boys coach Steve Hoffman and girls coach Trish Henry raced through the terminal to find and airline that could accommodate the teams. They scrambled for two hours throughout the airport. Then they decided by 10 p.m. that they had to tell the kids the trip was cancelled.

But the kids didn't give up. The coaches didn't realize that they tweeted to everyone they could think of to beg for help, including Ellen DeGeneres. They also tweeted to Delta Airlines.

A man in a red jacket approached Purdue, saying he's looking for a coach. The man was a Delta Airlines rep who heard about the problem from the corporate office. He had a way to help.

"I said to him is this some kind of joke? We have 79 people who need to get on a plane," Purdue said. "He said I am one of the managers and we want to help your team get to Orlando. We're going to find a plane in Atlanta to get here for your team."

They faced a few challenges from there. The terminal had to reopen the TSA gates. TSA agents had to be recalled back to work. The group's baggage had to be retrieved at a different terminal. Plus, Delta doesn't normally schedule flights between 2 and 5 a.m. But Frontier and Delta reps helped them get through the Atlanta terminal.

The teams were cautiously optimistic in Atlanta. They didn't know whether a flight to Orlando would come through. Then Delta sent an MD88 plane — an emergency aircraft intended for corporate executives or politicians to travel quickly, or for pro sports teams stranded by weather.

The coaching staff was placed in first-class, and the plane took off shortly after 4 a.m. They made it to 8 a.m. check-in and got about an hour of sleep before the Disney Classic began at 10 a.m.

Ocean City's boys and girls teams had a successful meet. The boys team, led by individual medalist Erik Sacramento (18:07.2), claimed the top six spots and won the "Hercules" race with a perfect score of 15 points.

The girls varsity, led by sixth-place finisher Casey McLees (20:28.6), finished second in the "Jasmine" race. The JV boys also won their race, while the JV girls placed fourth.

"You know there are guardian angels out there, but you never know," Purdue said. "All I can do is tell the kids to do good things and be good people and every once in awhile everything comes back."

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