Canfield teen is Pilot for a Day

VIENNA

Thirteen-year-old Christian Abrigg of Canfield, sporting an ear-to-ear smile, executed a snappy salute after being sworn in as an honorary Air Force Reserve second lieutenant of the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station.

The ceremony is one of the many activities Christian experienced Wednesday as part of the Air Reserve Station’s (YARS) “Pilot for a Day” program.

The purpose of “Pilot for a Day” is to reach out to the community by providing a fun-filled day of activities to children who live with a chronic or life-threatening disease or illness.

Christian, a seventh-grader at St. Christine School in Youngstown, has life-threatening allergies to nuts, peanuts and latex, asthma, and an auto-immune disease that complicates the other conditions, said his mother, Jody Abrigg. She and her husband, Byron, have three other children: Byron, 19; Maddie, 16, and Liam, 15.

Christian receives treatments every two weeks at Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley, including a special injection that helps him fight off his allergy problems.

“He has a great spirit about it. He doesn’t complain,” said his mother.

Read more about this young man and the Pilot program in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.