Parker Eshelman photo

Trish Blair, president of “A Call to Serve” International, thanks contributors and supporters after four truckloads of medical supplies were loaded and ready to ship to the Republic of Georgia. The final truck has more than $1 million worth of medical supplies, including the entire contents of a doctor’s office that will be set up in the nation bordering Russia.

Thirteen years ago, a diabetes diagnosis for a child in Columbia’s sister city Kutaisi in the Republic of Georgia was almost assuredly a death sentence. Most patients died within 10 years of a diagnosis because they lacked knowledge about how to manage insulin, diet and exercise, and they were unable to travel to the few doctors with blood glucose monitors in the country, Columbia physician Trish Blair said.

"That raised a red flag for my husband," said physician Elizabeth James, whose husband, Ronald James, founded Camp Hickory Hill, a diabetic summer camp for children in Columbia.

To help Georgian diabetic children, the Jameses joined A Call to Serve, or ACTS, an organization that has worked for 16 years to gather donations to rebuild the medical foundation in Georgia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Yesterday, the last of four 40-ton cartons carrying more than $1.1 million of donated medical supplies left for the month-and-a-half trip over the Atlantic Ocean to Georgia.

About 20 percent of the cargo is headed for the Ronald James Diabetic Camp, founded in 1996 and modeled after the camp in Columbia that teaches diabetic children how to monitor their diet, exercise and insulin to lead longer, healthier lives.

ACTS is now working to raise $75,000 to match a grant offered by the Lions Club to build a dining and education hall at the camp. The organization has about half of what it needs and hopes to raise the rest in the next few months so the new building will be ready for the 2008 campers.

For the past 13 years, the camp has been run out of a rented facility, but ACTS recently became the first not-for-profit organization in Georgia to buy a parcel of land, all of which used to be owned by the government, Blair said. In addition to the main hall, ACTS aims to build cabins, a laundry, a medical clinic and sports fields by 2010. Blair said that all original campers are still healthy, and several have had children of their own.

"If we are going to ensure a good outcome for democracy in Georgia, we’ve got to start with the children," Elizabeth James said. "If we start with the children and help them to help themselves, this can be a legacy of its own."

Elizabeth James said all of the equipment from her husband’s private practice, including exam tables, cabinets, desks and chairs, is being shipped over.

"It’s like an instant clinic," she said yesterday. She and her sister-in-law have for the past six months been sorting and chronologically ordering her late husband’s collection of medical journals from the past 30 years to send to the Georgian people.

The last of the donations was packed yesterday on the 16th anniversary of ACTS’ founding. Donated supplies include journals, text books, anatomical models and films from the Columbia Orthopaedic Group and medical supplies and vitamins from groups around the country.

"When you look at the history of ACTS and what it has managed to accomplish, all done by a group of dedicated volunteers … I’m very proud," Mayor Darwin Hindman said at the loading dock of the last container. "I’m so happy this is coming from the city of Columbia, Mo. It’s a lesson for everybody, and I hope they can appreciate what the volunteers are doing for Georgia."

Advertisement

Moms. Grads & Dads A 13 week gift subscription for less than $2/Week