Westbrook-Gorham - Gift of Life

 
Westbrook-Gorham Rotary Life
SPONSORS GIFT OF LIFE PROGRAM
 
A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way
 
Effective collaboration is an action of working with individuals or organizations to achieve shared goals. In Rotary, collaboration happens at the international level, although teamwork starts at local level. Now, you most likely consider we should leave it up to champions. However, even the smallest collaboration of Rotary Clubs can make a significant change in a person’s life, and it just happened a couple of weeks ago.
 
The Rotary Club of Westbrook-Gorham sponsors the Gift of Life, a Rotarian based organization that over the past 40 years has helped more than 17,000 children from developing countries receive heart surgery. 
 
Recently, Rotarians of the Dominican Republic and many others helped two children and their mothers to arrive safely in Maine at the beginning of February. Christal, who is 5 years old, and Yeremy, who is 12 years old, had their heart surgery at Maine Medical Center a couple days after their arrival. 
 
The Rotary Club of Portland also sponsors the Gift of Life, and worked together with the Rotary Club of Westbrook-Gorham acquiring warm clothing and boots.  The club allocated a substantial amount to the Gift of Life to help cover the costs to bring Yeremy and Cristal to the States, in addition to the ground work of helping secure clothing, providing hospitality for the families, etc. The average temperature in the Dominican Republic is around 70-80°F in February. What a shock when they arrived in Maine and experienced “deep-freeze” temperatures. Both moms and children were grateful for the warm clothing, mittens, and boots during their stay in Maine.
 
The Rotary Club of Wells, known for its Wrap-A-Smile project, heard about the children and promised to help too. In 2001, this project originally launched to recognize the fact that a repair of a cleft lip enables a child to smile for the very first time. Currently, Wrap-A-Smile supports not only the Rotaplast mission but also Rotary projects around the world.
 
Both operations were successful, and the children will have a life expectation beyond the age of 18. On March 3, club members of all three clubs visited the children and their moms at the Ronald McDonald House in Portland, which opens its doors for those families in need. Cristal and Yeremy were excited receiving a quilt that was compassionately chosen from the quilters.  Today, both Cristan and Yeremy are back home in the Dominican Republic.
 
Paul Emery was, not for the first time, the navigator of such project. He is a Rotarian of the Rotary Club of Westbrook-Gorham and a board member of the Gift of Life New England Division, founded by District 7910 in 2000. The members of the Rotary Club of Portland definitely have become passionate about this program thanks to Paul Emery. A big thank you to everyone who helped in giving two children a happier future.
 
A little kindness goes a long way and sometimes has a greater effect than expected. It is very easy to get distracted by raising awareness about individual Rotary club goals. It is essential to remember we all belong to one big organization and have ONE GOAL . . . serving humanity.