At just one day old, Revelstoke's little Sadie Barraball-Marks took to the skies for a helicopter ride.

"She was actually born at home," said mother Heidi Marks, who hails from Newfoundland and Labrador and has become a well-seasoned Revelstokian. "It was an unplanned (home) birth."

Sadie's entrance into the world at 7:25 a.m. Friday, Jan. 3, made her Revelstoke's first newborn of 2025.

Swiftly taken by ambulance to the Queen Victoria Hospital, Sadie and her mother were warmly welcomed by the doctors and nurses. Marks thanks them graciously for their support, along with the local BC Ambulance Service paramedics and Revelstoke Fire Rescue Services volunteers for coming to her aid.

"Very great support from all those groups," she added.

But the birth and ambulance ride were just the beginning for Sadie's nascent journey. The following day, she had the ride of her life to the Royal Inland Hospital, due to a lung infection that needed higher-level treatment at the neonatal intensive care unit.

"She got a helicopter trip her second day of life from Revelstoke to Kamloops," Marks said, adding road transport is far more common for local newborns in these circumstances.

Sadie may be the first infant to ever be transported out of Revelstoke by helicopter, her mother added, based on conversations with Queen Victoria Hospital staff.

Air ambulances will transport babies across the region as needed, according to Interior Health's Jamie Shinkewski. BC Emergency Health Services operates six different helicopters, with one serving Kamloops.

Shinkewski said a helicopter ride is a uniquely-memorable experience for newborn-bearing families such as Marks', whose circumstances warrant the quickest-possible transportation to higher levels of care.

Still with Sadie in Kamloops at the Royal Inland Hospital, Marks said her daughter is doing well and they hope to be returning to Revelstoke together soon, this time travelling with four wheels on the ground.

To cap off her high-flying start to life, Sadie has a newly-stitched quilt waiting for her back home, courtesy of the Revelstoke Quilters' Guild, as well as an excited big brother.

As the second child in the family, Sadie follows Parks' two-and-a-half-year-old son Theo.

"He is a proud big brother," their mother said.