Four members of the Rotary Club of Goleta, and family, flew to Morelia, Mexico, to bring medical equipment and supplies donated by SEE International to provided needed cataract surgeries for the poor.
More than 20 surgeries were preformed each day for a total of 65. Each year, the Camelina (all women) Rotary Club in Morelia, Michoacan Mexico, organizes the list of those in need of cataract surgery.
Each morning, the surgeries began at 8 a.m. and lasted, on some days, until 6 p.m. at the medical clinic for the poor. Families traveled, in many cases, in a bus, taking them two to three hours to reach the clinic. The ages of the patients ranged from 22 to 93 years old, and many of them were brought not only by immediate family members but by several extended family members.
Rotary Club members Pat O’Malley, Lynn Cederquist, Debbie Weaver and Martin Senn, along with his wife, Sus, brought three large duffel bags of medical supplies, donated by SEE International, along with a very large and heavy phacol cataract machine to Morelia.
The group left LAX at 1:30 a.m. Feb. 7 and returned on Feb. 15. During the following week, the Rotary volunteers worked in the medical clinic assisting doctors and nurses in preparation for patient surgeries.
Comforting patients and their families before and after surgery was one of their primary jobs. The Rotary Club of Goleta volunteers gave and received an abundance of love, respect and gratitude from the doctors, staff, patients and their families. Building strong friendships around the world is one way the Rotary Club of Goleta helps to make this a more peaceful world.
The Rotary Club of Goleta meets bimonthly at Glen Anne Golf Club’s Frog Bar & Grill Restaurant, 404 Glen Annie Road, on the second and fourth Tuesdays. If you are interested in learning more about Rotary International and how you can become involved in local and international projects to make this a better world, contact president Mike Pitts at chilemike@yahoo.com or membership chairman David Dart at davidwdart@cox.net. Guests are welcome!
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— Lynn Cederquist is publicity chairwoman of the Rotary Club of Goleta.