Jacob Bealle: Founder and CEO of Props For A Purpose
- Georgina America
- 6 minutes ago
- 4 min read
At the bright and early hour of 7:30 a.m., one Belmont student gave up extra sleep and the first morning of Easter break with loved ones for a family he’d never met.
With a phone wedged in between his shoulder and cheek, junior Jacob Bealle grasped a thick strap and pulled a shiny, sky-blue Cirrus SR 22 Turbo into the orange cast of morning sunlight.
The sun just made its full appearance above the hangars at John C. Tune Airport, and already, his plane rolled onto the tarmac.
This pilot was on a mission.
Not to take a joy ride through a clear Nashville sky.
Not to fly out for a day spent on the coast of Florida or South Carolina.
But to provide transportation for a mother and her son from Chattanooga, Tenn. to Augusta, Ga.
Christine Raper couldn’t afford the flight needed to get her son Seth Murray to his medical treatment in Augusta– caught in a house fire while staying with a friend, Murray was burnt from his face to below his knees.
And that’s where Bealle stepped in.
Through his self-started nonprofit, Props For A Purpose, Bealle provides patients like Murray transportation to their treatments for free since 2021. Whether it’s medical response, disaster relief, animal rescue or aviation outreach, Bealle and the crew of Props For A Purpose bring helping hands to people locally and internationally.
“Most of these patients don’t have the means to get there by car, funding, or have anybody to support them. And so, when that call comes in from them, we are kind of the only way they get access to care,” said Bealle.
During the plane ride, Raper took pictures of the bright, billowing clouds which amassed in the sky surrounding the small plane.
She talked with Bealle about her experience as a plane passenger with excitement and curiosity.
To her right, Murray sat silently, hunched over as he peered out the window to take in the views of his own first plane ride.
After landing in Augusta, Raper let out a long sigh of relief on the tarmac.
Then the strong, upbeat energy she showed during the one-and-a-half-hour flight broke character for a moment.
“This has just been a nightmare,” said Raper, “He used to be able to run six miles like it was nothing.”
She turned back to look at her frail son as he dismounted the plane and moved toward her.
As Bealle, Raper and Murray walked inside Daniel Field Airport and bid their goodbyes, Raper handed Bealle a hand-written thank you note.
Murray, who spoke not a single word that wasn’t an answer to a question in the plane, looked up from the floor and turned to Bealle slowly.
“Thank you,” he said in a crackly whisper.
The three exchanged smiles and hugs, then Raper and Murray took a gradual walk toward the sliding doors at the other end of the room and left.
Bealle commits to his missions with every intent of giving and no intent of receiving anything.
“After dropping Seth off at care and Christine handing me this hand-written thank you letter– no monetary donation can make you feel the sense of respect that you have after that. That’s what means the world to me,” said Bealle.
Bealle’s flight with Raper and Murray is an example of just one of the many missions which take Props For A Purpose into the air.
In under five years of operation and less than two years as an official nonprofit, Props For A Purpose has completed 181 flights, delivered 84,000 pounds of supplies and rescued 118 animals.
Props For A Purpose made huge contributions in bringing disaster relief to the communities affected by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica.
And Bealle doesn’t do it alone.
Almost 250 pilots and their planes volunteer as on-call members in order to help the team of six pilots and two managing members of Props For A Purpose transport people to safety and fly in thousands of pounds of disaster relief supplies.
The additional hands on deck offer loads of help in emergency situations, though that isn’t the usual luxury for Bealle and his team members when it comes to independent flights.
As a full-time student striving to get into medical school, Bealle can’t dedicate as many hours or take as many calls as he wishes he could.
The same goes for junior Drew Brill, full-time student-athlete on Belmont’s track and field team who serves as the Chief of Animal Rescue for Props For A Purpose.
Bealle and Brill often get urgent calls for help while they’re enjoying time off from their everyday responsibilities.
“I got called at 6 p.m. on a Friday for two bloodhounds out of Greenville who needed to be moved in the next three hours or they were going to be put down. And I kind of had that choice where it was like, ‘I can go out with my friends or I can save two dogs’ lives,’” said Brill.
He saved the dogs, and he'd do it again.
The work Bealle and Brill do with Props For A Purpose takes student leadership to another level.
To the two of them, being a pilot means so much more than enjoying the luxury of flying a plane wherever they want and whenever they want.
It means bridging the affordability gap for communities near and far to get the care they need.
For Bealle, Brill, the other pilots and team members of Props For A Purpose, aviation serves, well, a purpose.