Providing Smiles to Those in Need Changes Yarmouth Lives

Click here to see a video from this trip on You Tube.

Dr. Gary D. Howard completed his second Rotaplast trip, to Oaxaca, Mexico, in January of this year as part of a 30-person volunteer group that provided corrective surgery for cleft lip & palate deformities, grafting for burn injuries and restorations for other debilitating conditions to over 100 infants, children & adults.

The mission trip was sponsored by Rotaplast (www.rotaplast.org), a Rotary International supported independent organization that has provided services in 18 countries and sends out up to 15 teams each year; providing humanitarian effort, cultural exchange, peace, understanding and goodwill.

Howard, a member of the Rotary Club of Yarmouth and the owner of Cumberland Dental Arts, was inspired when fellow Rotarian Bill Dunn returned from his first Rotaplast trip to Cumana, Venezuela in 2002.

“I heard about the program at one of our weekly breakfasts and thought, I have to do this. In the U.S. facial maladies are addressed at birth, though not the case in most developing nations,” said Howard.

“The work is hard, but incredibly rewarding so I was glad that Gary was able to go on his first mission to Tacna, Peru back in 2007,” said Dunn. “I know the experience changed my life, so much so that, at 60, I’ve decided to change careers and am enrolled in the Maine Medical Center School of Surgical Technology and hope to be accepted into the USM School of Nursing in the fall of 2009.”

Dunn, who has now participated in four missions, has recruited numerous club and community members to join various missions, including Peter Johnson and Rosie Powers, both of Yarmouth, who traveled with Bill back to Cumana, Venezuela in 2006.

About Rotary Club of Yarmouth

Chartered in 1996, the Rotary Club of Yarmouth supports the youth of the community through scholarships, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), the Interact Club; the Rotary sanctioned Youth Service Club for High School Students through Yarmouth High School and YES! Rotary Reads.  In addition, the club supports a wide variety of local and global causes including Literacy, Polio Plus and Rotaplast.

The Yarmouth Rotary Club meets every Monday morning for a breakfast meeting from 7am to 8:15am at the Down-East Village Restaurant on Route 1 in Yarmouth, Maine.  Any and all are invited to visit.