{"id":3936,"date":"2019-06-08T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T12:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?p=3936"},"modified":"2020-09-03T05:52:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T09:52:54","slug":"just-another-day-spent-rescuing-puppies-and-sick-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/just-another-day-spent-rescuing-puppies-and-sick-kids","title":{"rendered":"Just another day spent rescuing puppies and sick kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S<\/em><\/strong>uperpower on the Side<\/a><\/em> is a series that features WeWork team members and how they spend their time when they\u2019re not at work.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Baumel flew a plane for the first time before he ever drove a car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was definitely love at first flight,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Queens, New York native was drawn to aviation from an early age. His father would take him on day trips to the Jones Beach Air Show and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum whenever they visited Washington, D.C. In high school he paid for flying lessons by cleaning bathrooms and giving tennis lessons. His parents indulged his fantasies by sending him to a weeklong flying program in Florida. And when Baumel was 16, his flight instructor told him he was ready to take up the plane on his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first time you solo an airplane and you realize there\u2019s no one there with you\u2014you\u2019re taking off and landing the thing by yourself\u2014it\u2019s actually one of the best feelings I think I\u2019ve had,\u201d says Baumel, 25, a contracts analyst at WeWork in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In college, Baumel attended the University of Oklahoma, lured by its acclaimed aviation program. By the end of his first semester, the aviation management major had earned his private pilot\u2019s license. When an arm injury from a moped accident prevented him from continuing on his path toward earning his commercial license, he got a job as a contracts administrator at Boeing, one of the world\u2019s largest aerospace companies, in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spent the next two years living and working in Oklahoma City. Baumel loved his job, but ironically, working at an aerospace company didn\u2019t leave him much time to go flying on his own time. In 2017, he returned home to New York City and accepted a job at WeWork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI truly believe things happen for a reason,\u201d he says of not being able to pursue his original dream of becoming a commercial pilot. \u201cI got a job with one of the biggest aerospace firms in the world. And that job of course led to what I do here at WeWork.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt was definitely love at first flight,\u201d Baumel says of the first time he flew a plane. Photograph courtesy of Daniel Baumel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Being at a company that encourages its employees to pursue their personal interests gave Baumel the time and encouragement to renew his private pilot\u2019s license. He had read about pilots who volunteered for animal rescue missions and realized he could do the same; it was a way to give back and help him log flying time. He connected with Michael Schneider, founder of Pilots to the Rescue<\/a>, a nonprofit that saves pets facing euthanasia by flying them to places where they can be adopted into loving homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so grateful for this organization and Michael because they take a lot of the hard logistics out of it for me,\u201d says Baumel. \u201cIn terms of participating in these missions, he\u2019s made it so easy for me, and I\u2019m really grateful to him for taking me under his wing, no pun intended.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baumel completed his first animal rescue in April 2019, flying down to North Carolina with Schneider and a rep from the Ulster County American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to pick up three dogs and a litter of puppies that another volunteer pilot had flown in from South Carolina. Clare Cheyne, one of Baumel’s WeWork colleagues, tagged along to film the trip for WeWork\u2019s social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that first trip, Baumel experienced how rewarding the missions are. \u201cThere was a chocolate Lab that was roaming free on a leash,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThe ASPCA rep who was with us got motion sickness, and this dog saw her distress and put its head on her lap. I thought that was unbelievably adorable and shows that dogs have this empathy you can\u2019t really explain. It was a cool thing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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