Dr. Heidi Wuerger’s Experiences Through Volunteering

Sometimes when I’m not in the office, Watertown staff ask “where’s Dr. Wuerger? Much of that time has been spent volunteering in places as far as Ecuador. In the last year I have been fortunate enough to spend time on 3 service trips. At Lakeview Clinic, part of our mission is service and Lakeview clinic employees serve every day in and out of the clinic.

In August of 2023, I spent a week in Belize with my church as an adolescent Leader. We had a group of 54 people who spent time in the city of San Antonio on the western side of Belize near Guatemala, and Bermudian Landing near Belize City. We ran children’s camps, dug trenches, helped clean up a recreation camp, delivered food to underserved at their homes and developed international friendships and knowledge. We also learned how difficult it can be to get a high school education, much less a college or medical school education, which only exists in Belize city. This is one of the reasons Belizeans do not have access to occupational or speech therapy and have very little physical therapy.

During this trip, I stayed in Santo Domingo de Heredia with a lovely family of 5, including 3 boys ages 5-12. I walked to Spanish school, Lapa Verde each day and spent 4 hours in intense Spanish class every weekday and made the commitment to speak only Spanish for 2 weeks. During this experience, we learned about the culture, donated to the community and helped serve in the community clinics. Multiple days we went to CEDCAS (a non-profit organization in Costa Rica for Health Education and Services) community center and took weight, height, blood pressures, blood sugars, reviewed medications and answered questions. This specific center helps the shanty town area Guarari.

The last week in June I went to Chicago with 26 other adolescents and adults on another service trip. Many kids and families were nervous for the trip due to media reports about Chicago. We stayed in a church and did service events around the city. We learned about refugee resettlement where the main message was that they are people just like us. We bought supplies for 2 different families, one from Bangladesh and the other from Pakistan and then set up their apartments. It was about $750 to set up basic supplies for a family of 4 in one apartment. These families spend on average 5-6 years living in refugee camps with about 14 square foot space and blankets for walls.  They go through significant vetting processes to get into the US and have given up their belongings, except if they’re lucky a backpack. Once they arrive, they are required to pay back most of the cost, including their plane tickets

We also worked with A Just Harvest, a greenhouse and garden in the city which serves lunches for the homeless. Another day was spent at Projectcure.org – a medical warehouse where we sorted donated medical supplies to go to countries in need. We also went to Berniesbooks.org -a warehouse filled with new books, where volunteers help organize, label and separate the books that are donated to kids in need in the area.

All of these opportunities allowed people to open their eyes to see people and places differently. It’s amazing to see that process, especially on the face of a teenager. And when people ask ‘Where’s Dr Wuerger’-I might be on another service trip, hopefully meeting more people, learning more Spanish and creating more heartfelt connections in the world. Yet, I know it’s not just happening on these trips but happening in our clinic and our community as well. So, THANK YOU, to all those at Lakeview Clinic and in the surrounding communities who SERVE.

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