Cradle Cargo: Hope Takes Flight

In the Air Capital of the World, airplanes have long carried people and products around the world. Now, Wichita-based nonprofit Bridget’s Cradles is inviting the aviation community to help carry something else: hope.

Through its new Cradle Cargo program, volunteer pilots transport handmade cradles and bereavement resources to hospitals nationwide, ensuring families receive compassionate care after pregnancy loss. The program brings together two worlds connected to Wichita — aviation and a hometown ministry with a nationwide reach.

Bridget’s Cradles currently serves more than 1,700 hospitals in all 50 states, providing knit and crocheted cradles for families to hold and bond with their babies after second-trimester stillbirth. However, more than 1,000 U.S. hospitals with birthing units remain unreached.

“It took us 11 years to reach the first 1,700 hospitals, and we want to reach the next 1,000-plus much faster,” said Ashley Opliger, founder and executive director of Bridget’s Cradles. “I began wondering what could happen if volunteer pilots carried cradles on flights they were already making, utilizing empty legs and available cargo space.”

A full-circle aviation connection: Steven Golik with Piper Cherokee Warrior N2122J at the 1980 Buckeye Air Rally in Ohio (top), and his daughter, Ashley Opliger, in the cockpit of the same airplane in Iowa more than four decades later (bottom). 

A Love of Father and Flight

For Opliger, that idea grew from a deeply personal connection to aviation.

Her father, Steven Golik, was a former pilot who spent his 36-year career as an engineer at Beechcraft and later Textron Aviation, working on aircraft programs including the JPATS T-6 Texan II, King Air, Citation Longitude, and SkyCourier. After he was tragically killed by a drunk driver in 2024, Opliger found herself drawn to the world he loved. Aviation became a part of her grief journey — a way to feel connected to her dad while discovering a love of flight for herself. 

She began flying in small airplanes with flight instructors and connecting with the aviation community. Somewhere between those flights, new friendships with pilots, and a growing appreciation for aviation, an idea began to form: Airplanes could help Bridget’s Cradles reach hospitals faster.

That idea took flight this summer when Opliger traveled to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh with Cradle Cargo’s first volunteer pilot, Kelly Nimmo-Guenther, vice president of the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (COPA), with 200 cradles on board. Opliger delivered several boxes to Wisconsin hospitals, while other pilots flew the remaining cradles home from Oshkosh to hospitals in their own communities — launching the first Cradle Cargo missions across the country. 

Pierce Ahart, founder of Aetos Aviation Network, departs Wichita’s ICT Airport with 15 boxes of Bridget’s Cradles aboard a Citation jet, transporting them to Austin and Houston, Texas, during business trips. 

Nursing staff holding a box of Bridget’s Cradles at Mercy Health Hospital in Janesville, Wisconsin

One Airport and One Hospital at a Time

Bridget’s Cradles tracks active hospitals receiving cradles, lapsed hospitals needing replenishment, and unreached hospitals that haven’t received them. Pilots share where they’re headed, and the team matches their routes with hospitals that need them. Pilots may deliver directly to the hospital or hand off the final miles to a local Cradle Carrier volunteer. 

Each flight extends the reach of a Wichita-born ministry one airport — and one hospital — at a time. Opliger dreams of one day following in her father’s footsteps by earning her pilot’s license and flying Cradle Cargo missions herself.

And her aviation dreams extend beyond the cockpit. Bridget’s Cradles currently operates from a rented 1,000-square-foot space in Kechi, but Opliger hopes to establish a permanent home for the growing national ministry in northeast Wichita or the surrounding area — with aviation woven into its future.

“Two people I love and miss in heaven are now woven into this story.” — Ashley Opliger, Bridget’s Cradles founder and executive director

“We have a God-sized dream of building a headquarters for Bridget’s Cradles on land with room to grow,” Opliger said. “Someday, I would love for that vision to include access to a runway, and maybe even a mission aircraft and hangar. I know my dad would be so proud to see airplanes carrying Bridget’s Cradles across the country. It’s incredibly special to carry on his aviation legacy through the mission that began in memory of my daughter, Bridget. Two people I love and miss in heaven are now woven into this story.”

Two people I love and miss in heaven are now woven into this story," says Ashley Opliger, Bridget’s Cradles founder and executive director.

Opliger envisions the Air Capital becoming the hub of a nationwide network of volunteer pilots and hopes Wichita’s aviation community will help carry that vision forward. Because the cradles are lightweight, even small aircraft can carry enough to serve many grieving families.

Each cradle will ultimately be placed into the hands of grieving parents, giving them the opportunity to hold, bond with, and make memories with their stillborn baby — while connecting them to continued support through Bridget’s Cradles, including support groups, remembrance events, and the “Cradled in Hope” book and podcast. 

For Opliger, that is what Cradle Cargo is ultimately about: using aviation to reach more grieving families with comfort and compassion. Airplanes are already going places every day. Cradle Cargo simply asks: What if they carried hope with them?