Help Fund Cape CARES Fall Clinic's in Honduras

Dear *|FIRST_NAME|*,

My name is Mara Saulitis, I am a family medicine doctor in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Vice President of Cape CARES Board of Directors. I’ve been volunteering with Cape CARES since 2008, ever since my then 5, now 19 year old, youngest child watched the video Road to San Marcos and insisted that I go on my first international medical brigade. I’ve returned nearly every year and have developed friendships that feel more like family with the people of San Marcos, both patients and our community workers, and with fellow volunteers. Our brigades often feel like small family reunions on a mountaintop in the open sided clinic, on our predawn hikes reversing the paths our patients take to see the villages from which people come, over meals around our communal table, and with conversations under the Milky Way, or while laying under mosquito nets with headlamps glowing. I’ve met volunteers from all across the United States and Honduras-

"doctors, nurse practitioners, PAs, physical therapists, nurses, students, aspiring medical providers of all types, baristas, dentists, dental students, hygienists and dental assistants, teenage kids of volunteers, high school students, Honduran dentists and translators."

Some volunteers come seeking a new path forward in their lives, a reset or carrying grief. Many return to a place they call their “second home”. Some have arrived with suitcases lined with sadness, burnout, a sense of lost purpose. And some think they are coming only for an adventure, and return home with a fire burning to do more for others and for the world.

Any of you who have been on a Cape CARES brigade have stories tucked away in your memory, of a person who inspired you, awed you, or reminded you of yourself at another time in your life. Someone who made the whole brigade laugh uproariously after a long day, the adventurous spirit who convinced you to join them at the waterfall, dragged you out of bed for that hike where you saw the most beautiful peach sherbert sunrise, or handed you a cold bottle of water on a hot day when they saw your fatigued determination to keep working as long as possible to see as many people as possible. The quiet person at the end of the first breakfast table, who came for quiet reasons, who by the end of the week was hugging new friends and promising to return.

Volunteering with Cape Cares is a profound and life altering experience. Many of our younger volunteers have gone on to pursue careers in medical and dental fields, in global health and as community organizers. The impact the trip has can lead to personal positive changes that ripple out to the world at large. But for many of our “volunteers” affording time away from work, paying for child care, the trip fees that cover our medicines, supplies, personal protective equipment and provisions and the inflation driven travel costs make these experiences out of their reach. We at Cape CARES are committed to supporting the growth of our volunteer pool and to inspiring new voices and new perspectives.

This year we have launched our new Financial Aid Program designed to provide assistance to those volunteers who need support to make the journey to San Marcos or Los Encinitos. In the first two months of our pilot program, we have already provided financial aid assistance to THREE NEW VOLUNTEERS-a dental assistant, nurse and high school student general volunteer. Without this assistance, these capable and inspiring individuals would not have taken their first and hopefully one of many trips with Cape CARES.

Some of you may have heard stories of Cape CARES clinic weeks from loved ones, acquaintances, or family members, and have been inspired in the work we accomplish in Honduras. Other, like me, are the ones that have the stories to share.

So as a long time volunteer, trip leader, current Board member, and someone who might have roused you out of bed at 4:45 AM for that hike, or dragged you along a muddy path to the waterfall, or asked you to help care for a sick child brought in by dirt bike at 11 pm, I’m personally asking for your help in filling the coffers of our financial aid program. Remember what brought you to Cape CARES and the inspiration you received. Remember what the communities in Honduras taught you and how it changed you!

This year for GivingTuesday, Cape CARES is participating in a matching campaign with GlobalGiving. Please consider giving a donation of any amount for the Scholarship/Financial Aid program on GivingTuesday or during our year end fundraising campaign. You will make a difference in someone’s life who wants to make a difference providing international medical and dental care! I thank you for your generosity in this time of financial uncertainty. The amount doesn’t matter; the effect will be profound!

Best Wishes,
Mara

Mara Saulitis, MD
Vice President
Board of Directors
Cape CARES
Central American Relief Efforts

Links:

• GivingTuesday With Cape CARES
• https://www.capecares.org/
• Financial Aid Program