Rotary Club of Warren County: LFCC Rotaractors travel to Jamaica on dental mission

Brandy Boies is the Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) Rotaract advisor and Director of Outreach and Marketing at LFCC. Brandy is also past president of the Strasburg Rotary Club, and helped revive the college’s Rotaract chapter. On Wednesday, she presented a program about LFCC Rotaract members and their trip to bring dental health care to Jamaica in 2018. Hearing about the need for health care in Jamaica, Brandy suggested to a class of dental hygiene students at Lord Fairfax that there was a real need in Jamaica for dental care, and asked if they might be interested in a trip to Jamaica. At first, all of the class expressed interest, but as the students concluded the two-year dental hygiene program, four graduating students and Rotaractors–Lacie Brenneis, Jessica Mahon, Dane Hooser and Uswa Arain–were anxious to make the trip. Three days after their graduation on May 12, 2018, the four were on their way to Jamaica with retired orthodontist Dr. Byron Brill, his dental hygienist wife Kathy Kanter, and Brandy for a week-long mission. (Kathy, an active Rotarian, is the upcoming District Governor for District 7570 in 2022-2023.) As Jessica said later, “It was life-changing… we were actually changing people’s lives by correcting their oral behavior.”

A major fundraising effort was launched in 2016, and financial support came from clubs in Rotary District 7570, including Strasburg, Front Royal, Frederick County and Broadway/Timberville. The Interact Club at Patrick Henry High School in Stuart collected dental supplies, and the Winchester Rotary Club donated significantly to the purchase of one of two mobile dental units. The Rotaract Club also held 2016 and 2017 Holiday Parties, sold T-shirts, had auctions, and wrote numerous fundraising letters.

In Negril, a make-shift dental unit was set up in the conference room at the Travelers Lodge where they stayed and whose owner is a Rotarian. They began treating patients, eventually serving more than 120 people from the area. As Brandy said, “some of the people had never been to a dentist, or had their teeth cleaned. In fact, often the people tried to extract their own teeth when there was a problem.” There are 10,000 people in Negril and only one dentist. She told of one man who had very badly stained teeth, to the point where he never smiled. One of the students worked on him and managed to remove all of the stain. As she said, “he was amazed and left with the biggest smile on his face.” The experience was an excellent hands-on experience for the students as well.

They also treated students at St. Paul’s Primary School, where they screened 125 students and educated them on proper oral care. Toothbrushes and floss were handed out to all of the students. As she said, we were not always able to help out with the cleaning and other work so Byron and I went downtown and helped out at the local a local soup kitchen.

The group also worked with the children of the Negril Educational Environmental Trust (NEET). NEET fights crime in Negril by teaching positive behavior by providing access to academic resources and education plus access to health care programs. Our group also had the opportunity to network and build new friendships with the members of the Rotaract Club of Negril as well as the Rotary Club of Negril. As Brandy noted, these club members also knew the best places to eat, and it was spectacular.

Brandy is planning to take another group of students back to Negril in May, and fundraising is well underway. For her complete program, please go to www.warrencountyrotary.com.

Story by Hank Ecton
Video by Dave Hardy