Moving Families Forward Toward Destination Dream
By: Malcolm Jenkins Foundation
Every journey has highs and lows, unexpected turns, and long roads ahead. There are moments when we have to rest, and moments when we are ready to move forward. While no two journeys look exactly the same, we all need people to help us along the way.
As a Mission Supporter of Get Ready Fest® 2026, American Airlines helped create a day designed around connecting Philadelphia families to resources, relationships, and opportunities that support their journeys long after the event.
Travel is essential for everyone, and for many families, mobility is a privilege. Not every family, not every young person, has the access, opportunity, and support to choose where they want to go next.
For us to move, we need a vehicle. That vehicle can be a career opportunity–right in our home city.
American Airlines is a regional employer offering careers to thousands of Philadelphia residents.
“We only are able to do that because we have 10,000 team members, local to Philadelphia, that help to collaborate and work as a team to be able to empower and enable people to connect across the world.” - Charles Brunson, PHL Hub Control Center Director, American Airlines
For many young people, the best dreams happen when they close their eyes. American Airlines came to Get Ready Fest® showing youth what it means to dream with your eyes open. Team members told youth what it takes to become a pilot and showed parents how their child’s ambition can fuel a career at American Airlines.
At Get Ready Fest® 2026, Charles Brunson and his team members opened a window into the many careers available within an industry that helps people move around the world.
And now, hundreds of youth and families see a new destination–and know how to get there.
We get there by making sure youth and families are well along the way.
At Get Ready Fest®, all attendees—adults, seniors and youth—chose a First Class wellness amenity kit that American Airlines provides to their Flagship customers. Rooted in an act of social good, was the choice itself: families deciding what they needed, how they would use it, and how it could fit into their everyday lives.
Reflected in our partnership is the bigger belief American Airlines and the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation stands on: Families deserve access to quality experiences and thoughtful resources, delivered with care.
As American Airlines marks 100 years of letting good take flight, its partnership with the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation offers another expression of that purpose: helping youth and families get to the next destination.
The only way we can get there is–together.
Thank you to our Mission Supporter, American Airlines, for helping connect Get Ready Fest® families with the resources, care and opportunities they need to thrive. Your generosity helps make this collective impact possible.
