Missions of Mercy

Each year, doctors, nurses and business leaders in Southwest Florida board planes to travel the globe and perform acts that to most Americans seem routine, but to people in desperately poor countries are miraculous. They treat colds, eradicate diseases and repair birth defects, or they build schools, churches or waterworks. Some go with well-established organizations and others with small church groups. For their time and trouble, they get not a single cent, but they are immensely rewarded nonetheless.

The number of those here and around the country who do such volunteer work, and the worth of their services, is hard to measure. But judging just by the example of Rotary International's involvement, a lot of good work is being done. The organization, which includes dozens of chapters locally, has 1.2 million members in 166 countries. Its foundation has awarded more than $1.1 billion in humanitarian and educational grants since 1947.

Although the economic impact may be hard to quantify, the sense of accomplishment and the commitment experienced by these humanitarians are not. They are happy to give of themselves so that others may experience even a fraction of the blessings they've had in their careers and lives in Southwest Florida. Here are just a few examples.

Rotary Geek

When John Smarge joined the Rotary Club in 1982, it was for selfish reasons. He was new to the Naples business community and wanted to make contacts and be associated with a group that would help his company, Ray the Mover, succeed.

"But after a while, I got so revved up by what we do," says Smarge, 44. "My wife will tell you I'm the ultimate Rotary geek."

Rotary geek, indeed. He's past district governor, representing Southwest Florida's 54 Rotary clubs at Rotary International, a group of business and professions leaders whose mission is to eradicate polio, fight illiteracy and advance education, among other goals. Smarge estimates that about 30 percent of his week is spent on activities for Rotary or other local organizations. His reason? "All of a sudden, a light goes off in your head: This is why I'm here." Such inspirational moments have struck Smarge many times in his Rotary years. In 1998, the father of three traveled to India to vaccinate children against polio and other diseases. Two years later, he was off again. He had met a woman who was collecting and shipping medical supplies to her native Ukraine. He decided to help. He went to local doctors, hospitals and other medical centers for sutures, bandages and anything else that would be useful. "Things that are throwaways for us are lifesaving equipment and material for people in the Ukraine," he says. "We successfully shipped over a 40-foot container of supplies."

Then Smarge decided to travel to the former Soviet republic to witness conditions and to meet the doctors and other medical staff who received the supplies. The trip was sobering. "There are instances where a doctor will have one glove to operate all day on all his patients," he says. "There are instances where doctors have to use peroxide to clean needles."

Hal Atzingen, who's known Smarge since 1985 through their Rotary work, says his commitment to the organization is complete. "He absolutely lives and breathes what Rotary is all about ... John is someone who never says 'no,'" says Atzingen, owner of the Naples firm Design Purchasing Network.

"There's so much greater need elsewhere in the world," Smarge says of his global travels. "You sometimes have to view where the need is the greatest, and then to understand that you cannot base your generosity on a manmade or even a natural boundary."

Sharing God's Love

Suzanne Williams loves her career.

As a nurse practitioner, she treats patients from newborns to 22-year-olds at Associates in Pediatrics in Lee County. Her patients come in for check-ups and treatments for ear infections, headaches, viruses and other conditions. "You get to see everything,'' says the 42-year-old Kentucky native, who lives in south Fort Myers.

Williams' career has allowed her to own her own home, travel and enjoy other opportunities. She believes fortune and God have been good to her, and she's always wanted to pass some of those benefits along to others.

She got her chance in July when a group from her church, Covenant Presbyterian, went to Esteli, Nicaragua, to help Shalom Presbyterian begin construction on its church there. Williams has had some experience in missionary work. In high school, she had helped build another church and volunteered in Bible schools on youth trips to Ohio and South Dakota.

But those projects were nothing like the Nicaraguan mission. Williams didn't speak Spanish, and the environment was as foreign as the language. Esteli, a poor but picturesque town in the foothills of northern Nicaragua, remains a Sandinista stronghold.

Williams had no idea what to expect when she packed medical supplies to treat people there. And she was no construction worker.

Still, she knew the trip was the right thing to do. "It's a way for me to give back some of the blessings that God has given me," she says.

When she and the rest of her church group arrived, the floodgates opened. Patients who had long suffered from respiratory problems, heart conditions and other ailments came for treatment. Most had had little or no medical treatment before. "It's amazing to me how long they survived," Williams says.

Medicine was expensive, so Williams and others in the church group pooled money to buy it, a short-term solution to a chronic problem for Esteli's sick and needy.

The cases Williams saw and the rustic conditions in which she worked-she diagnosed and treated patients in their homes, which included one-room, tin-roofed shacks-tested her medical abilities.

Her work was greatly appreciated. "Suzanne was a constant source of sharing God's love to others with smiles, hugs and words of encouragement to the many young women who are members of our Young Life Ministry and work alongside visiting mission teams," says Shalom Presbyterian's ministry director, Emerson Wilson.

Meanwhile, construction on Shalom Presbyterian's church continued. The group dug out a 30-foot-by-40-foot area to redo the foundation, using sledgehammers, wire cutters, wheelbarrows and other basic tools that made for backbreaking work. They also cleared a house on the property for office space.

"They now have a concrete floor with a tin roof with some poles holding it up," Williams says. "They're happy to be there. They're happy to be able to worship God."

Eternal Optimist

When contractor Dan Dodrill considered going to Africa to construct a much-needed facility, he realized the job was nothing like building a four-bedroom, three-bath house in south Fort Myers.

First of all, the job site was an ocean away.

Second, the country, Rwanda, was still suffering from the aftermath of a bloody civil war.

Third, there were practical concerns: How do you get supplies for a 7,000-square-foot building from here to there? How do you get a crew to volunteer and work together in a country where warring tribes slaughtered each other in Africa's version of ethnic cleansing? And if you've resolved those issues-a big if-what will the working conditions be like?

Dodrill, president of Daniel Wayne Homes, thought it over and then he did it anyway. "It was an unbelievable experience," says Dodrill, 42. "Instead of running the business, I was running the screw gun."

Dodrill took on the project after one of his brothers introduced him to Jean Baptiste Mugarura, national director of Youth for Christ in Rwanda, when he traveled to the United States three years ago in search of support for his evangelical ministry. Mugarura met other local business leaders who helped support his work, eventually buying 17 acres for a youth center and school. Before long, Dodrill and many of his construction colleagues were designing the building and devising a way to ship the structure over in pieces.

"Dan is the eternal optimist," says John Gillmore, 45, a sales representative with Suncoast Contractors Supply in Fort Myers. Gillmore was in charge of organizing the building supplies and making sure everything was in order for the construction crew. They needed passports, visas and inoculations for yellow fever, typhoid and other water- and insect-borne diseases. Military-style MREs (meals ready to eat) were mailed over for the crew.

"Why this part of the world? Why Africa?" Gillmore asks, anticipating the question. "We have the means. We have the time. We have the expertise."

By July 2002, Dodrill went to Rwanda to see the foundation. The building was shipped over in August 2002. Then in January, the Southwest Florida construction crew headed to Africa for an eight-day, around-the-clock building job.

It was a logistical challenge even after the supplies and crew made the arduous trip. Despite the health provisions, one-third of the workers fell ill, Gillmore says.

Once, the drill bits ran low. Here in the United States, it's a problem easily fixed with a quick run to a Home Depot. When Dodrill finally found a hardware store there, he had to draw a picture for the owner to explain what he needed. "He said, 'Wow, that must be a fantastic tool,'" Dodrill recalls.