March 31, 2004 - Pittsburg Post-Gazette: Linda Alley Herndon went to the island nation of Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Dominican Republic: Peace Corps Dominican Republic : The Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic: March 31, 2004 - Pittsburg Post-Gazette: Linda Alley Herndon went to the island nation of Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-178-137.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.178.137) on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 7:18 pm: Edit Post

Linda Alley Herndon went to the island nation of Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer

Linda  Alley Herndon went to the island nation of Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer

Linda Alley Herndon went to the island nation of Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer

Family fills needs in Dominican Republic

Wednesday, March 31, 2004
By Lynda Guydon Taylor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Three days a week, Linda Alley Herndon speaks only Spanish to her 3-year-old son, Ollie. Spanish-speaking nannies help immerse him in the language. In more than two years, he's gotten quite an exposure and understands Spanish perfectly.

It's preparation for the Peters family's annual medical mission to La Pascuala, Dominican Republic.

It started in 1993, when Linda went to the island nation as a Peace Corps volunteer. She was scheduled for a two-year, three-month stint, but stayed an additional three months to finish her health education project.

The strong bond she made with the Dominicans made her feel as if she were leaving family behind when her time expired.

"I did fall in love with my community and I knew I would go back."

More than a decade later, Linda continues the annual health care mission with her husband, Dr. Oliver Herndon; Ollie; other family members, including her father, Dr. Albert Alley; her sister, Dr. Cynthia Alley; her uncle, Dr. Samie Alley; friends and volunteers. Two other sons, Dylan, 1, and Max, 4 months, are too young to go.

Among the volunteers are Ted and Pat Shaffer, of Murrysville, who have been going for 10 years, and Holly Boehm, a first-timer and nurse from White Oak. Ted Shaffer is a Rotary Club member and Pat Shaffer is a pharmacist.

At the Herndons' home, preparing for their latest trip, they talked about the medical mission.

Oliver Herndon, an internist, serves as medical director. He sees about 30 patients a day, supervises the team, helps with the flow of the mission and serves as the final decision maker.

During this year's stay, Linda Herndon said, the five-doctor medical team is expected to see about 300 patients, perform some 25 minor surgeries, 10 major surgeries and 60 eye surgeries.

Volunteerism is a tradition in the Alley family. Before Linda Herndon's Peace Corps stint, her father, Dr. Albert Alley, a Rotary Club member in Lebanon, Lebanon County, founded the World Blindness Outreach, in which teams of doctors visit foreign countries to provide eye care for the poor.

This year, the Herndons started Dominican Republic Medical Outreach, an arm of World Blindness Outreach.

Each year brings new memories for volunteers to savor, and Ted Shaffer has a few he never tires of telling.

One involves a husband and wife, both of whom received cataract surgery. The next morning, when the patches were removed, they looked at each other and smiled. It was the first time they'd seen each other in years, said Shaffer, who volunteers as a "gofer" at the Nagua eye clinic.

The mission also touches people here. Local Girl Scouts donate children's clothes. To document the gift giving, Pat Shaffer takes pictures of the Dominican children dressed in their "new" clothes.

The Girl Scouts were "so gratified that the kids will look at that picture and say, 'There's my dress. She's holding my dress,' " Ted Shaffer said.

One of the first projects the mission undertook involved raising nearly $27,000 to build a clinic to replace an inadequate, small metal building. The Dominicans named it Clinica Rural Linda Alley.

The clinic, completed in 1995, is staffed year-round by doctors supplied by the government and serves 3,000 people, Linda Herndon said.

Volunteers who traveled to the country March 11 installed a two-seat dental clinic, costing $25,000, which was financed by the Harrisburg Rotary and Rotary International. In future trips, the dental clinic will become part of the medical mission, Linda Herndon said.

There's also a plan to expand the mission into outreach programs in this country. The hope is to focus on Dominicans' needs in the United States.

(Lynda Guydon Taylor can be reached at ltaylor@post-gazette.com or at 724-746-8813.)




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Story Source: Pittsburg Post-Gazette

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Dominican Republic

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