The Countdown

The countdown begins and we're gearing ourselves for an exciting start to 2007 here at MEDICO! We've got so many reasons to celebrate a brand new year but perhaps the greatest joy is in the celebration of MEDICO adding one more to our family! Terri Oliver, our Director of Volunteers, and her husband Tom brought home a precious Christmas gift Sunday, December 24th. Nathan Walter Oliver joined the Oliver family, blessing this household with promise and joy. Congratulations to the Olivers for the new addition! We are SO excited for this precious family. He sure is cute!!

As the MEDICO family grows we like to stay connected with all the many field team volunteers, the warehouse volunteers, and all those who contribute to the success of MEDICO over the years. It's exciting to hear news of where our family of friends are, what they doing and where they have furthered a mission response. Our family extends well beyond the continental United States, touching scores of other continents and countries within, providing the humanitarian care as only a MEDICO volunteer can. We recieve news blogs and websites from volunteers who serve beyond Central America in countries like Ghana, Thailand, Mexico, New Guinea, Haiti, Afghanistan and more. We'll be posting these links in our medicocorps website early in January of 2007 and encourage you to drop on by and click through some of the exciting stories of these MEDICO volunteers, both past and present. In addition to featured links of our volunteers in mission response, we also provide you with links to our MEDICO team members who have shared with us their life stories through blog links and websites, stories of triumph and success and, stories of team members struggling with difficult illnesses or life journies. Please be sure and click on these links as well and perhaps consider a way you can help. We all are a family indeed.

As we all celebrate the ensuing year our hope is that you'll find full connection with MEDICO through whatever means, be it resources of time, of gifts-in-kind, or through financial resources. MEDICO exists because of our volunteer base's response to humanitarian need. Without your passion to help others we could not consistently provide the quaility care we have provided for the over 143,550 patients throughout Honduras and Nicaragua. Let 2007 be a new chapter in your humanitarian care response through MEDICO. Ready to get started today? E-mail us at brian@medico.org or call at (512)930-1893.

Have a safe and happy new year!

Happy Holidays!

Thursday evening, December 21st at Chic-Fil-A in Georgetown was a HUGE success!! A very special THANKS to all who were able to come out and enjoy dining at Chic-Fil-A knowing that by turning in your receipt, you were able to make a contribution to MEDICO. Very special thanks as well to Lance and Tammy Bennett, owners of this franchise. If you came and joined in our night of food and fellowship, please let the Bennett's know you appreciated their support.

A very special thanks as well to Cecily Cutler, a Junior at Georgetown High School and Brian's God-daughter, who came out and helped us out, handing out fliers and encouraging patrons to turn in their receipts for donation. Additionally, we'd like to give a heartfelt thank you to Paul Hindelang, a MEDICO veteran volunteer for sharing the good news about MEDICO with each and every drive-thru patron tonight!

So what's in the pipeline for MEDICO? We're ready for 2007 with 7 field teams lined up for response to the burgeoning needs down in Central America. We'll be responding to places like the Island of Amapala, Naranjito Banaderos, Jalapa, Nicaragua, La Esperanza and other sites. Many of our teams are already assembled, with volunteers gathering from locations all around the US. As a part of our continuum of care, our Adopt-A-Village Initiative (AVI) site at Las Aradas will be visited as this is the 2nd year of a 5-year commitment to this area. We anticipate wonderful reports of progress in health and wellness in this AVI, as we had discovered this past September - our second visit to this AVI..

As you wind down your year consider the impact MEDICO has made in your life and certainly, in the lives of patients down in Central America. The ripple-effect reaches far and wide. One person, stepping up to the challenges of humanitarian care and transforming the life of another...and subsequently, having their life changed as we discover the move from sympathy to empathy. Be ready in 2007 to join MEDICO as we step up our care and outreach to these precious neighbors to our south.


And from all of us in the MEDICO offices in Georgetown, Texas, USA, may you have a safe and joy-filled holiday.

Holiday Wish List

If you are still considering what to give that special someone this year for a Holiday gift, consider giving them a gift in honor of them!

MEDICO has a list of items we can use to further our efforts in mission, providing medical, optometric and dental care to impoverished people living in rural communities who have little to no access to quality health care. Your gift in honor of that special someone will ensure that these precious people in Honduras and Nicaragua will have opportunity.

Season's Best to you and your family from MEDICO!
Wish List link: http://medicocorps.org/wish.aspx

MEDICO warehouse night success!

Thursday evening, Dec. 7th hosted another evening of our MEDICO Warehouse Night of packing and prep for our 2007 Field Team expeditions. We were able to accomplish the packing of some 10,000 Children's Vitamins with Iron as well as creating 240 dental packets. Many thanks to Joe and Zoe Wilson, Joe and Ruth Way, Pat and Marty Suerth, Jerry Sensabaugh and Kathy Buchhorn for their wonderful help. WIthout these kind folks and all those that give of their time at our occasional MEDICO Warehouse Nights we would not be able to serve the people in Honduras as we do.

If you would like to share in these Warehouse Night opportunities which occur approximately once per month for an average of 2 hours, please contact us at the office at 930-1893 or e-mail at brian@medico.org. We hope you'll consider this fun and important facet of MEDICO volunteerism.

MEDICOblog is live!

Congratulations and welcome to the MEDICOblog!! We hope this informational tool helps you to stay connected with the very latest @ MEDICO. We'll be keeping this up and going with regular, refreshed articles of interest as well as announcements about special events and happenings.

Be sure and bookmark this page for a regular connection and don't be afraid to give us your comments!!