Patricia Mendez 223-1032

Email: pasoancho@hotmail.com

The Informe last month was a huge success. Thank you all for your attendance. I want to thank the volunteers who put it together - Carol Jones and Susan Schebel who took care of the invitations, Murray Beer & Tricia Streeter for the Clubhouse setup and service, Yvonne Ward & Kitty Leonard for arranging the food, Donna Readerman for the floral arrangements, and many thanks to Norm Yellowless for his assistance with transportation.

We had a great turnout and those of you who attended have a better idea of what the Club does with your money.

The next Cleft Palate operations will be May 2,3 & 4, 2001.

Some success stories….

If you remember last year in April I wrote a story about Bryan, a child who had 80% hearing loss. He was brought into our program 2 years ago by his grandmother to see if there was anything we could do to help. His case was taken by one of our volunteers, Susan Zwickel, who contacted club member and Audiologist Dr. Paul Fleming in Wisconsin. He was able to bring down hearing aids and batteries for Bryan. Bryan was then placed in the School for the Deaf in Coapinole and was given school supplies by a private donors Laurence & Jo Brown of Minneapolis through Harriet Murray, a local realtor. When Dr. Fleming came back to PV this February he brought more hearing aids and batteries to donate to the local audiologists for poor children and was pleased to see that Bryan is now in a regular grade school and that his behaviour is greatly improved. He is now just another regular student and in only a year and a half this child has been transformed from a deaf mute problem to a child that now speaks, goes to school and plays well with others and interacts with his world.

Speech therapist Lic. Arizbeth Salas who has an office on calle Viena has been unable to treat all of our children who, as a result of cleft palate, have speech problems - there are only so many hours in an office day. So we have arranged space for her in the Regional Hospital in the evenings and gathered some materials that she uses. She has enlisted the volunteer assistance of a primary school teacher and now Arizbeth and Ophelia see our patients on Saturday at 5:30pm for instruction and evaluation and Ophelia attends to them also Mon, Wed and Fri for reinforcement.

From friends of club member Jean Becker we received a major donation of toothpaste, toothbrushes and floss which we then channeled to the school Dental Hygiene program through Dr Adan Michel and the Dental Association. They will be making another trip through the schools in May with approximately 23 dentists participating.

We want to thank Phil Bittiker of Deerfield, IL for the donation of a child's wheelchair and Ruth Ann Grockis of Deerfield for getting it down here to us. The enormous stack of supplies and orthopedic splints was donated by the Orthopedic Assoc. of DuPage, IL and brought down by Kathy Dieter of St. Charles, IL. These two women are daughters of IFC Life Member Marcy Kengott, who always comes through for us. Mel & Louise Montero brought us a good supply of surgical materials that an anesthesiologist will greatly appreciate.

At the top of our “Wish List” is a new head lamp for the surgeons. We know that this is an expensive item but we hope that somebody out there knows somebody who would donate one. For the ongoing “Wish List” please see our website or check the back page of this newsletter. Always the cerebral palsy patients at the Rehab Centre need strollers and wheelchairs. The mothers have to carry these children to their therapies which is difficult for them. A regular stroller would help them very much. If it can handle up to a 50 pound kid and if it is collapsible, so much the better. Thank you all for your kind attention.

Patricia Mendez taking delivery of medical supplies from Illinois