With all of the complex intricacies of private/corporate aviation, who would guess that the simple little Sic-Sacs® onboard every route have a fascinating tale all of their own?

 

Annie Balshi, President, CEO and the “heart” of BE Princess, Incorporated, recently purchased the nearly one hundred year old middle America company and has plans to send the neatly packaged staple for travelers into the skies for decades to come.

 

Even the most savvy flight crews may not know the colorful history of the Sic-Sac®.  Back in the 1930’s when flying was little more than a novel idea, an entrepreneurial family in Oklahoma designed the petite package that was to become an essential part of every airborne departure. In 1947, when the founders passed it onto a son, R. Dardis Higbie, and his charming wife, Betty, the Sic-Sac® received its trademark and became the product of a company known as Allied Aviation, Incorporated.

 

When Dardis passed away, Betty was determined to keep the Higbie legacy alive.  The multi-step process of intricately folding bags, applying nomenclature and inserting them into discreet envelopes was too large a process for one woman, so Betty Higbie, aging herself, brought her well beloved project to nearby assisted living and invited the elderly to remain in the great American work force.  At the age of 88, Betty Higbie stood on a precipice.  She was coveting rest and retirement and no one in her family wanted to continue the multi-generational family business.  A fortuitous telephone call brought her plight to the attention of the USA’s #1 cabin supplier, and Annie Balshi came to the rescue.  

 

Sic-Sac® is now safely in the hands of BE Princess Incorporated and without even a whiff of turbulence will be ready for delivery to all clients. The process though, of meticulously, even lovingly folding these bags and inserting them into envelopes remains a tremendous challenge that requires focused manpower, not something that a busy aviation supplier could easily absorb into daily operations.  Annie Balshi, however, whose mission has been service driven for twenty-eight years, found the most touching denouement to the story.  She put her arms around a Vero Beach, Florida charitable organization known as The Source, an institution that stands unfortunate men and women back on their feet after cataclysmic life circumstances render them homeless. Today, under pristine sanitized conditions and careful supervision, those among us who most desperately need to see blue skies and cumulus clouds are making.

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Sic-Sacs® for private and corporate aviation.

 

Could there be a more royal fairy tale when we all

need to change altitudes and find smoother air? Allied Aviation, Inc is now under the wings of Annie Balshi and has morphed in a sense into “Dignity Air.”  An American legacy continues and every flight will be stocked without missing a beat.