1988 Omoa, Honduras
Omoa, Honduras 1988
15 January 1988 -- Host Club San Pedro Sula Lions Club
A 15 January departure, through Miami where we picked up our glasses previously stored near the airport, to San Pedro Sula where we were met and assisted through customs by the Lions Club Members and transported to the Grand Sula Hotel for the evening. Then by Bus (donated to the Sula Lions by Indiana VOSH) to the coastal city of Puerto Cortes and the Hotel of Mr. GGEER, our base for the clinic in a school at Omoa 20 minutes away. This site having been scouted the year before by the Hart family.
We had a large group, missed Co - Director Larry Ulm who could not attend due to the illness of his mother. Marlee represented the family, and Marty Fair capably filled in as dispensary chief. A new dimension was added to our third world commitment by the physical medical group headed by physiatrist Chi Mei Wu and ably complemented by occupational therapists Ellen Levy and Julia Belkin. This group triggered a large number of patients with a full range of orthopedic problems.
The three musketeers had now become eight. Spencer Moy, Carl Sakovits and George Kanis, now senior students, were joined by third year students Vicki Molnar and Doug Weiss and three ODs from the New York area Hernando Alfonzo, Tony Ficarra and Greg Rios. Too well, just from the Philadelphia area Jack Hauler and Dave Mc Phillips Wilson's stock has been added to the tried and true Maryland contingent of Lila and Bob Schwartz and Harry Hart, OD and wife Nancy with son David Hart rounded out our professional complement. Gene Heath and Jayne Sansever completed our roster of 22.
Over a 4 day period, this group assisted by a group of students interpreters from the local saint john's school and members of the San Pedro Sula Lions Club treated 2100 patients and supplied them with spectacles. A return to San Pedro Sula and a farewell party than at the home of Lions President Ruth Berkling. We stored our unused glasses in Ruth Berkling's VOSH room and headed home.
The year was concluded with our second annual VOSH weekend and picnic in Annapolis and banquet at the Fontaine Bleu in Glen Burnie Maryland.