Jacquie Drew

Jacquie Drew vividly recalls the back-country crash that would inspire her to pen a heartfelt anthem about STARS and its founder.

“After they rescued me and scraped me out of that ditch, I really wanted to repay them in some way,” the singer/songwriter smiled from inside a recording studio. “Had it not been for STARS, I would never have been able to get out of there.”

It was dusk on a summer evening when an idyllic motorcycle ride through the Rockies turned traumatic, beginning when Gary Drew’s voice rang through his wife’s helmet headset.

“Rock!”

Riding his own motorcycle just ahead, Gary had barked his warning when he spotted the hazard in the road, but it was too late. The horrific sound of his wife crashing filled his ears.

Wheeling around, he found Jacquie unresponsive next to her battered machine.

They were out of cell range, so Gary hit the SOS button on his GPS device. Emergency responders began to arrive, and with them, chopper blades gained volume in the distance.

“When I saw the STARS helicopter flying over, that certainly was a reality moment,” Gary recalled. “The gravity of it was substantial.”

“Once the helicopter landed and the ambulance and firemen showed up, things changed. It went from being a very scary situation to a lot of relief, because these people were here to help, and they knew exactly what they were doing. Seeing that happen was very reassuring.”
Although Jacquie sustained a serious head injury, she’d go on to make a full recovery.

As a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter, she long thought about writing an ode to the charity that helped her on her worst day.

“She really felt she wanted to use her skills to give back to STARS,” said Gary.

Then, in Spring 2025, Jacquie was saddened to learn of the death of STARS founder Dr. Gregory Powell, and her emotions pushed the song inspiration to the fore.

“I was fascinated,” she explained. “I was like, Wow! The original story of him going to Vietnam and seeing people on the battlefield — I just thought, that is an excellent story, and I would just love to be able to capture what he was going through.”

As she learned more about Dr. Powell, the more amazed she was, particularly how an emergency-department physician was so passionate about his vision that he was willing to dive into unfamiliar territory like fundraising and government relations to make it a reality.

“I kind of put myself in his shoes and told the story from him being a young man and how he felt when he was on the battlefield. And then he went on to be a doctor, and he felt great about saving lives, but dang, when one of those people would arrive a little bit too late, it must have just torn his heart out.

“So, that’s really what motivated my entire song. And then I was thinking about how difficult it must have been for him to get that going and the legacy that he has left. It was so inspiring to read that it just made itself into a wonderful song.”

She penned heartfelt lyrics and set them to a melody that had long been rolling around her mind.

All the while, Gary was curious about what she’d created.

“I didn’t actually get to hear it until she performed it live for some people,” he said. “And I was floored, as I always am. She’s an amazing musician.”

Jacquie debuted ‘If I Could Fly’ live at a STARS open house and, at the same event, had the opportunity to play it privately for Linda Powell, Dr. Powell’s wife. Several weeks later, she played it in the STARS hangar for crew members, three of whom were on her mission.

Each live performance left its audience in tears.

“What I hoped to accomplish with the song was that it would be just a thank you for what STARS had done for me,” said Jacquie. “But it feels now like it’s kind of more like a little anthem for STARS, as to, ‘Here’s why we do what we do, because it’s important to fly, to save those lives.’”

While visiting the STARS base, she broke free from a group hug with crew members and clasped her hands, looking each of them in the eye.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much for scraping me out of that ditch.”