A day at St. Andrew's Clinic

Normally on this blog I discuss international athletes, but today I thought I would discuss something I experienced last Thursday in Nogales, Ariz. The event was an all-day activity at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, about five miles from the U.S. - Mexico border, aimed to help Mexican children whose parents otherwise couldn't afford health care. The church provides free, specialized health care for the children on the first Thursday of every month (excluding July) at the church.

On April 21 on the Border Beat website, I will be doing a few interesting stories about some of the things I encountered at the clinic. The first story will be about a handful of University of Arizona medical students that volunteer each month not only to assist in the children's medical care, but to experience some hands-on learning about medical treatment. Allison Castro, one of the coordinators of the program spoke to me for a while about some of the amazing experiences she has encountered in her five-plus years volunteering at the clinic, along with other medical students.

I will also be working on a few feature stories on some of the volunteers at the clinic. Some of the volunteers really have a great story, like 83-year-old Robert Mankel, whose mainstay volunteer job for five years has been to lift small children that need to be weighed. Some of the children have very severe medical conditions and are unable to walk, so Mankel helps out both the clinic and the children by assisting them. He weighs 160 pounds, and always adds the children's weight to the scales.

Another piece I will be working on is about the bus driver, Ray Turner, who goes down to the border dozens of times a day to pick up the patients and brings them back to the clinic in his bus, which is about a five mile ride.

Finally, one of the more extensive pieces I will be doing will be about the program's future. St. Andrew's will be selecting a new board of directors in the very imminent future, and there are talks of expanding the clinic to a bigger space for easier, more efficient care. The program has mainly been done the last 34 years at the church (in the early years it took place in Nogales, Mexico).

There were a lot of interesting people I talked to, and I'm sure the other nine people in the Border Beat class will be putting together some very interesting things as well. Be sure to check the website on April 21 for a very extensive look into the St. Andrew's Clinic.