Packing to go!!!

A bit of a picture from the mayhem of packing last Saturday. Such a wonderful collection of donations from New England O&P, Cascade DAFO, Biometrics, Hanger and so many others. All told we packed 25 bags and boxes of supplies. We are getting excited to leave for Haiti this Saturday. The last week or two have been busy packing up all the wonderful donations we've received. Team CT has branches all over the states and everyone's been busy collecting and packing.

Victoria Wilburn is the Indiana contingency of Team CT. She was able to secure $25,000 of O&P supplies from Advanced OrthoPro.

So many people have been collecting shoes and hygeine supplies for us - thank you to all the houses of worship and schools that have helped us pack so many shoes for needy feet.

The gals from Gaylord (Rebecca Kania, Lori Vickers and Erin Prastine) were able to acquire medical and rehab supply donations from Sammons Preston and Hudson Home Health.

Thank you again for all your generous donations and the gift of your prayers over the next few weeks!!!! Mesi anpil!!!

2010 Needs List

Below is the updated needs list of items, both medical and non-medical for our trip to Haiti in May. If you can help with any of the needed items please contact one of the team members or lyonsden1133@yahoo.com. Mèsi anpil!!

Snack size baggies
Gallon size baggies
Abdominal binders
Wheelchair gloves
Compression stockings
Sturdy shoes and sneakers (children's sizes and adult sizes smaller than men's 9)
Socks
Crutch tips
Ace bandages
Coban tape

Monetary donations will be used to additional donation items. Any donation, in-kind, cash or check is tax deductible.

The end of trip wrap up

Well, as with most things in Haiti, the internet was far from reliable. Sorry we weren't able to always get updated posts out. We all made it home safely and I wanted to do a quick wrap up for the rest of the trip. Thursday and Friday the team was split between Institute d'Espoir Orphanage, the clinic in PAP, and caregiver school, where Tessa spent the days painting a magnificent mural. Jenna and I taught the basics of amputation rehab to the rehab techs in the afternoon on Thursday and Krista taught basics of speech therapy to them Friday afternoon. The clinic is quite an experience with the techs having varying levels of experience and analytical understanding. It was a bit of a challenge to get them to have us treat with them for the purpose of education rather than just handing us patients to see for them. The clinic space gets pretty crowded and with our docs working with the clinic physician staff the place was crawling with people. Thursday night we headed to the Hotel Olafson to hear the well-known vodoo rock band RAM. They were wonderful and a late night meant a quieter start to the morning. Overall the time went so fast - so many things that we tried to do and accomplish in such a short time. It's hard to see right now how sustainable it all is. Wish we had had time to do more education and caregiver training so that hopefully the work will last. I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows this will not be my last interaction with Haiti. The country is so desperate and so sad and so full of hope and pride at the same time, beautiful and terrible all in the same breath. We return to the states with a renewed appreciation for everything we previously took for granted, and a renewed resolution to continue to make a difference wherever we are. Thank you again for all your prayers and support!