Bringing together nearly 500 business aviation professionals each year during NBAA-BACE, the gathering raises about half the organization’s operating costs, or around $500,000. CAN, founded in 1981, arranges free transportation for cancer patients in empty seats on business jets.

A key part of the fundraiser is the annual auction, which had 64 items when it opened online for bidding this year, up from 50 the year before. The bidding will be ongoing through the event, and the auction features everything from watches and vacations to a piece of Amelia Earhart’s beloved Lockheed Vega 5B and an experience where David Copperfield will personally guide the winning bidder through his International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts.

During the evening, CAN will also honor 8-year-old Hank Anthenien with the Jenna Vial Fearless Fighter Award. Anthenien was diagnosed in 2023 with a rare form of neuroblastoma (Stage 4) that was pressing on his optic nerve and has undergone surgery to restore light perception to his left eye. After undergoing various treatments, including a multiyear trial vaccine, he is now attending school without having to take medication. Created in 2025, the award recognizes a cancer patient “whose journey reflects exceptional courage, resilience, and the profound impact of community support during cancer treatment.”

Originally called the Fearless Fighter Award, the award was renamed this year in honor of its first recipient, Jenna Vial. She organized and founded the Stronger Together with Jenna Fund, which provided hope, support, and essential resources to individuals and families affected by cancer. She also created a Glow Walk/Run fundraiser to further CAN’s cause, raising $20,000, and was the first CAN patient to undertake such an effort. “It was remarkable,” Easton said.

Vial’s health declined, and she died two weeks before the 2025 Fund an Angel, though CAN was able to send her the award in advance. Her parents will attend this year’s event as their daughter is further recognized with the award’s renaming and will be able to visit the convention and static display.

The fundraiser comes as CAN is on pace to arrange 2,300 trips for cancer patients traveling to and from treatment centers this year, up significantly from 1,700 last year. Last year the nonprofit surpassed its 70,000th trip, and “we’ll be just over 72,000 here shortly,” Easton said.

She credited the organization’s growing ambassador program for helping to raise awareness of its service, as well as efforts of its board and other supporters who have reached out to the medical community, corporate flight departments, and patients. “The number of flights that are increasing is definitely attributed to these conversations that we’re having outside of CAN with the medical community and our corporate partners,” she said, adding that the ambassadors “have been such a huge help.”

CAN established its ambassador program in 2025 to offer a means for volunteers to help not only increase awareness of the program among patients but also conduct outreach among corporations and medical institutions, as well as find sponsorships and other fundraising avenues. Nearly four dozen industry veterans have signed up as volunteers for the program. “We’re not going to limit it. We’re going to have as many people become an ambassador as they would like to. It doesn’t have to be an invitation,” she said.

As demand increases, however, so does the need for corporations willing to donate time on their aircraft. Easton said this need is particularly notable in the Northwest, but help is needed throughout the country. Companies that travel to cities with major cancer treatment centers—such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center in Boston, and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota—are especially needed. Easton said in all there are about 10 major treatment locations that often come up in trip requests. The center receiving the most trip requests is the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

She noted that often, companies have misperceptions about the program. She stressed that in most cases there can be other passengers aboard, CAN does not require a special liability waiver, it is okay to turn down trips, and if they can only do one trip, that is still a gift. But CAN finds that once a corporation participates, it frequently wants to do many more trips.

While corporations conduct most of the flights, NetJets has created a program for patients who might require a solo flight. Under this program, NetJets fractional owners can donate even the smallest amount of time to such patients, and NetJets matches it. In addition, Southwest Airlines donates tickets for such trips, which CAN will use to provide transportation for some patients, and American Airlines donates miles, which CAN uses for its annual fundraising auction.

Backing the coordination work are what Easton termed a “small but mighty” staff of six and a small core group of volunteers who coordinate funding, help with scheduling, and handle other tasks. But CAN also has a strong board of industry luminaries, which has 17 members and most recently added Experimental Aircraft Association chairman and CEO Jack Pelton. Earlier this year, MedAire founder and chair Joan Sullivan Garrett joined the board.