Park Scholars and alumni will travel to Honduras this holdiay season bringing good cheer and health. Read and learn how you can participate.

What better time to give back than the start of a new year?

From December 26th through January 1st, a team of Park Scholars and alumni will be traveling to Honduras with the organization Global Medical Brigades to conduct health clinics in needy villages. These brigades typically serve 1,500 patients in one week, patients that otherwise do not have access to health care. Students will rotate through triage, the consultation room, the pharmacy, and data entry, working alongside doctors to provide care for the patients and keeping records to track individual patients as well as health care trends in the area. However, since the brigades are entirely student-run, your help is needed!

What can YOU do to help start 2009 off well for those in need?

1). Donate medicines. The students raise all of the medicines that will be given out at the clinics. Medicines that are especially needed include:
-Cough syrup
-Acetaminophen
-Ibuprofen
-Antacids/Tums
-Vitamins
-Children’s chewable vitamins
-Aspirin

2). Donate money for medicines. Some prescription medicines can be purchased in Honduras.

3). Donate money to individual team members.

4). Go with the students! That is, if you are a doctor! One Honduran doctor will be there to help out. However, the clinics run much more smoothly and students learn a lot more if there is more than one doctor.

If you think that you would be interested in doing any of the above, please e-mail Emily Gifford at eagiffor@med.unc.edu.

Participating students include Park Scholars Cristina Alcaraz ’12, Emily Gifford ’07, Ethan Harrelson ’12, Megan Henley ’10, Leslie Herman ’11, and Julie Wofford ’11, and NCSU alumnus Jordan Holmes ’07. Thanks to Emily Gifford ’07 for submitting this article!

Have a story you’d like to share? Write to park_scholars@ncsu.edu.