Parkway Rotary President Terry Rezendes Curran and Ipswich Rotarian Bob Arsenault recently gave a presentation on Rotaplast to the Doyon School EarlyAct Club at a joint Ipswich Rotary/Doyon EarlyAct meeting at the Ipswich school.Terry and Bob spoke to the 80 plus 4th and 5th graders and the 35 Rotarians and guests about Rotaplast and its mission to provide free reconstructive surgery for cleft lip and cleft palate to children from the age of 3 months up to seventeen. Typically, this surgery would cost around $650, and each mission completes about 130 surgeries. Rotaplast does ten missions around the world each year with Rotaplast International paying all costs. Everyone on the Rotaplast team is a volunteer for the two weeks of the Rotaplast visit and they pay their own airfare for the trip.
Bob and Terry gave an entertaining and educational slide show presentation on past Rotaplast missions to Cebu City in the Philippines, explaining what life is like and emphasizing how fortunate we are to live in the U.S. and to have the living conditions and medical care available to us. They have been on two previous Rotaplast missions to Cebu City and are volunteering again for the next trip, scheduled for September 28 through October 11.
After the Rotaplast presentation, a group of EarlyAct students explained what they enjoy about the EarlyAct program, and spoke of their volunteer efforts and how they help others through their projects and fundraisers. Both presentations ably demonstrated how Rotarians make an impact on the lives of others.
Rotarian volunteers are needed for the upcoming Rotaract Mission to the Philippines. Clubs and members interested in more information on Rotaplast or the upcoming mission in the fall to Cebu City should contact Terry at gaterrycurran@gmail.com.