Nancy & Gary Pacha Jim Arthur, Reinhard Juraschek, & Krasi Hristov Thursday, February 23, 2012 has arrived! By 10:30am the majority of the Iowa MOST personnel arrived at the Eastern Iowa Airport outside of Cedar Rapids. We boarded a plane to Dallas, where more of the Team joined us. Late afternoon we…
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Fondly known as Paco, Juan Francisco Fernandez is our in-country coordinator and a man of many skills and talents. Paco is Executive Director of Casa Colibri, a medical clinic in the far western highlands of Guatemala, which has been built and supported by Rotary club members from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canada. However, each year…
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Gary Pacha has served as Team Leader for every Iowa MOST mission. Gary coordinates all the non-medical trip details – the travel, the lodging, the shipment of supplies. He is the liaison with our Guatemalan partners and selects non-medical volunteers and assigns their duties. Gary’s responsibilities for a mission begin months before the team leaves…
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Dr. John Canady is our medical team leader and the heart of the project. Dr. Canady has done countless missions to correct cleft lip and palate all over the world, but for the past seven years, he has devoted himself to organizing the medical personnel for the Iowa MOST mission and directing the medical activity…
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Karin Franklin has been the Iowa MOST supply master for several years and she has also filled the position of record-keeper. This year Karin will not accompany the team to Quetzaltenango and she will be sorely missed, but her mark will be all over the mission. Since the fall, Karin has played an integral part…
Read MoreIowa MOST (Miles of Smiles Team) of Rotary International District 6000 is in full preparation for its 2012 medical mission to Guatemala. The team leaves on February 23.For those new to this blog spot and the Iowa MOST project, here is a brief history….Iowa MOST is a Rotary District 6000 project, which provides cleft lip…
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This is the last posting of MOST mission 2011. Some of the team would like to share their thoughts about this amazing experience. It is appropriate to post our thoughts with a photo of one of our MOST children. “Although every mission has it’s standout patient story, what keeps me coming back is being a…
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MOST wishes to thank the following for their valuable support in our mission to help the people of Guatemala: DHL Experts in specific transportation solutions. Air, Ocean or Land. Dermabond A topical skin adhesive that protects wounds while they heal. Ethicon A Johnson & Johnson company. For over 80 years Ethicon has been at the…
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Many of the families that come to MOST travel great distances to Huehuetenango. Such is the case of four of the families from the remote Mayan communities of Northwest Guatemala that traveled to be seen by MOST. They were first seen at Casa Colibri, a nonprofit organization in partnership with Rotary International and the Gerard…
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Thursday morning, February 17th, was the last day of surgery. After the patients were safely in recovery and post-op it was time to inventory supplies for the next mission and say good by to our hosts and co-volunteers at the Hospital de Especialidades. We all returned to where the mission had started on screening day,…
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