(Hershey) -- A signature program at a Dauphin County hospital is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center's Life Lion initiative has airlifted thousands of patients in critical condition to the facility over the past two-and-a-half decades. Paul Matter, a paramedic who was on the first flight years ago, says the program has expanded its reach beyond the original 17-county service area. "We've been to Ohio, we've been to Virginia, West Virginia, New York, Maryland, Delaware, transporting either patients from or to the Hershey Medical Center. We transfer patients to other hospitals as well," he says. Gavin Gilhool, a nine-year-old from Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, was also airlifted four years ago after he fell 24 feet from his home's upstairs window. He and his mother, Kristin, say they're grateful Life Lion was able to get him to the medical center in about eight minutes. "That was actually my first place that transported me somewhere. I'd never been on a helicopter or a plane," Gavin says. "What do you want to say to them?" Kristin asks. "Thank you," says Gavin. The Life Lion program has served thousands of patients, and makes an average of four flights a day.