DeNese

Congratulations to the raffle winner of the travel package!  Jane Dixon won a week stay at an RCI vacation exchange network and 2 jetBlue tickets. Enjoy your trip and thanks to all who supported the raffle! Our Annual Report highlights some of the impact and outcomes your support makes possible. We hope you’ll read and share the report with pride. If we’ve received your year-end donation, thank you again. Your contribution is already at work, helping to make sure we’re staffed and supplied to effectively meet the needs of our patients. There’s still time to make a difference and help to prepare our teams to do more in 2017. You may renew your support online — Donate — or mail your check payable to Surgicorps to 3392 Saxonburg Blvd, Suite 400, Glenshaw, PA  15116. Happy Holidays and the very best to you and yours in the year ahead,

Jack Demos Founder Liam Carstens Executive Director

Linda Esposto Director of Programs and Logistics DeNese Olson Operations Manager

Surgicorps International is packing for our 13^th trip to Vietnam from October 28th-November 8th with 29 medical and non-medical team members. This will be our final trip of 2016.

We will once again partner with Odonto Maxillo Facial Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Our team this year includes: 17 members from Pennsylvania, 2 from Arizona, 2 from Massachusetts, 2 from Minnesota and 1 each from Missouri, California, Texas, New York, Colorado and Maryland.

Return team members include Thanh Armagost, Tu Armagost, Neal Armagost, Anne Argenta, Andrew Berenato, Mary Bernacki, Bill Bookwalter, Will Bookwalter, Alena Curry, Joan Dunn, Lori Ellis, James Fleck, Alex Hutchinson, Paul Kim, Duc Pham, Jimmy Ricciardi, James Terman, Judy Traister and Charles Yang.

We welcome several new team members this year as well:  Donna Bookwalter, Christine Depenthal, Carla Lavrusky, Belinda Lee, John Merrill, Megan Natali and David Nelson.

Jack Demos will lead the team as Medical Director and Linda Esposto, our Director of Programs and Logistics, will ensure things run smoothly on all fronts. Liam Carstens, our Executive Director, will make his inaugural trip to Vietnam.

Best wishes team Vietnam 2016 as you set out to change many lives. Stay tuned and follow us, for trip updates and pictures, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn!

Surgicorps is set to leave for our 6^th mission trip to Zambia from September 17^th-24^th with 23 medical and non-medical team members. We look forward to partnering again with Beit CURE International Children’s Hospital in Lusaka. Our team this year includes: 10 members from Pennsylvania, 7 from Massachusetts, 2 from North Carolina, 2 from Nevada, and 1 each from Virginia and Zambia.

Our returning volunteers include Janet Belitsky, Cliff Bierman, Mary Bierman, Christine Bowman, Tara Burns, Lori Ellis, Rama Joshi, David Kim, John Lagnese, Peg Lagnese, Michele Misher-Harris, Richard Montilla, Bernadette Montilla, Scott Pearson, and Courtney Retzer Vargo.

A warm welcome to several new team members this year as well:  Mutande Chisanga, Meredith Deaton, Courtney Garbee, Yuen-Jong Liu, and Stephen Vargo.

Jack Demos will lead the team as Medical Director and Linda Esposto, our Director of Programs and Logistics, will be overseeing all aspects of the mission. DeNese Olson will be our Trip Coordinator.

Although all volunteers pay for their own airfare and accommodations and generously donate their time and skills, Surgicorps has additional expenses not covered by volunteers.  Please consider visiting our Bon Voyage 2016 Team Zambia Crowdrise campaign here and help us to fund this gap.

Thank you team Zambia for helping Surgicorps serve people in need in Lusaka. Stay tuned and follow us, for trip updates and pictures, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn!

During my three years as an interpreter for Surgicorps, I’ve heard a lot of things that formal Spanish classes and medical translation textbooks simply didn’t prepare me for: a toddler cursing at me in K’iche’ when I had to restrain him from ripping out his IV, two young girls staring at me incredulously when I responded that no, I was not married yet even though I was already 17, and an 80 year old man revealing to me that the secret to a long, healthy life was eating lots of frijoles.

But perhaps the declaration that stuck with me most came from a kindhearted man who had traveled 5 hours to find help for his son who was born with a cleft palate. When I asked if he had any questions about his son’s upcoming surgery, he shook his head and replied, “No. But I would just like to thank all of you for leaving your jobs and your families this week to come to Guatemala. There are so many here who need help, but so few who are willing to provide it.”

This sobering quote put a lot of things into perspective for me. First, I realized how much I take for granted living in a place with such abundant medical resources. When my wisdom teeth started to cause problems, I had my choice of 5 surgeons within a 10 mile radius of my home. When I broke my arm, I was casted that same night. And when I feel something as minimal as a sinus infection coming on, I have the privilege to drop into any of the 15 urgent care clinics in my town and receive an antibiotic. When you are used to such accessible medical solutions, it takes a quote like that to realize that most of the world does not share this same luxury.

And secondly, as I looked at this man holding his son and heard his words repeating in my head, I realized that there was nothing else I would rather do with my life than to be one of “the few” and help those whose circumstances hinder them from receiving the care they need and deserve. After that moment, I knew that I could never be content working in a place where I was an option: one out of 5 doctors in a 10 mile radius that could all treat the same problem, while knowing that somewhere else in the world, I would be someone’s only chance at finding help.

If it weren’t for my time with Surgicorps, I might never have chosen this path. But through these trips, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by volunteers who have shown me what it means to be one of “the few”: selfless, kind, and hardworking medical and nonmedical personnel who invest their time to help those who need it, and who exemplify what can be achieved by using their talents for the good of others. Each year, we see more than 100 patients who travel for hours to receive care for life­altering deformities and life­threatening conditions, care that they could not access otherwise. For these people, volunteers like those at Surgicorps are their only hope for a better life.

Although the efforts of “the few” are not enough to heal the whole world, they are enough to make a lasting difference. With each trip to Guatemala, I am continually amazed by what a team of just 30 caring individuals can accomplish in just a week’s time, and by how many lives are changed in the process. My experience with Surgicorps has inspired to continue this type of work, not just for one week out of the year, but for the rest of my life. And with a career built on my Spanish skills along with my medical training, I can only imagine all of the quotes I have yet to hear, both comical and life­changing.

I have begun my path of transition to retirement. As Surgicorps moves forward, I have moments of great joy and at times much emotion as an observer and a participant. This 2016 trip to Guatemala is special for me and also for our team members here at the Surgicorps’ office.  It will be the first team to fulfill the Surgicorps mission led entirely by a volunteer Medical Director and Trip Coordinator.  Everyone has put much work and energy to develop ideas, discuss options, and listen to input. It is a work in progress to insure that our mission to help those in need in the developing world continues well in to the future. There is no doubt in my mind that this team will be successful based on the teams that have gone before them to 20 countries over 22 years.

When Surgicorps’ core contains generous donors, tireless volunteers, team members with skilled hands, team members who comfort and show compassionate and patients and their families that touch your heart, Success is guaranteed.

I want you to save the date Saturday June 3, 2017. I want to invite all of you to my home. I hope it will be very crowded. I hope to meet some of you for the first time or hug you once again. It is part of my personal transition to decrease my time but never leave Surgicorps. My home is special. It is where I surround myself with my sisters, their husbands, their children and my friends. It is my core. I want you to come because you have become a part of it. So save the date and details will follow.

So team Guatemala 2016 lead the way to the future and continue the commitment to the Surgicorps mission to provide service to those in need in the developing world.

Our hearts will be with you!

Linda

 

Surgicorps is preparing for our 14^th trip to Guatemala from August 6^th-13^th with a team of 33 dedicated medical and non-medical volunteers. Our team this year includes: 14 members from Pennsylvania, 14 from Massachusetts, 2 from Spain and 1 each from Arizona, Colorado and New York.

Previous Surgicorps team members include Heather Archambeault, Kerry Bennett, Dylan Butt, Kevin Cohen, Beth Demos, Brian Gierl, Amelia Hare, Anne Kamarchik, Ramon Llull, Carlos Mata, Judith McNicholas, Aidan McNicholas, Dave Metro, Farzaneh Nabizadeh, Lynn Novier, Katie Respet and Mark Stoker.

We welcome several new team members this year as well: Sam Bennett, Melinda Desourdy, Amy Hatch, Melanie Hodge, Aina Llull, Nick Metro, Maria Metro, Jonathan Miller, Elise Perz, Katelyn Perz, Amy Shalala, Kylie Shalala, Regina Stoker and Greg Williamson.

David Kim will once again be our Medical Director and Stephanie Charron will be the Trip Coordinator.

Surgicorps thanks each of these volunteers who help make our mission of serving individuals in need in the developing world possible through their commitment of time, energy and resources. Stay tuned and follow us, for trip updates and pictures, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.