ISRC Ensenada Dental Clinic #8

Almost 50 children were treated to free dental care at the eighth Ensenada Dental Clinic, co-sponsored the Rotary clubs of Irvine Spectrum and Ensenada Calafia. The event, held November 8th, took place at the Emiliano Zapata primary school, located in the rural San Carlos neighborhood of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

The Irvine Rotarians responsible for this year’s dental clinic are Ray Sanford, Rick Topping, and Austin Wall. In Ensenada, the project was run by Ofelia Diaz Perea, her club’s International Service Director.

The Ensenada Dental Clinic, proposed four years ago by Ray Sanford, is an event that club members look forward to attending each year. The project’s dental portion is run by Dr. Charles Tozzer, founder of Dental Care for Children, an Irvine-based non-profit organization which coordinates dental clinics for children in Southern California, Mexico, Haiti, Africa and El Salvador. The Irvine Spectrum Rotary Club has been working with Dental Care for Children and Dr. Tozzer for the past 12 years, providing dental checkups and clinics for children in Irvine schools.

Dr. Tozzer and other dental volunteers, including Rotarian Barbara Foster from the Laguna Niguel club, drove to Ensenada on Friday to get an early start on the project and to perform follow-up services for a clinic held a few weeks prior. It also gave them a chance to visit the school and preview where the clinic would be held.

Most of the Irvine area volunteers left home around 5:00am, caravanning to arrive at the school at 9:30am where they were immediately put to work They were met by members of the Club Rotario Ensenada Calafia, who were by that time busy at work attending to those parents and children who had been gathering in the schoolyard since early morning.

Dr. Tozzer and his team of volunteer dentists had already converted two of the school’s classrooms into a dental clinic. The Smiles Dental Clinic van, provided with the help of a Rotary Foundation matching grant, was carefully unloaded and the equipment and supplies were set up in the classrooms. Soon, the dental team was ready to perform much needed dental services on the little children, who were lined up and waiting in nervous anticipation for their turn in the dental chair.

Children soon filled all the dental chairs, and dentists Chuck Tozzer, Xerxez Calilung, David Levitt, and Austin Wall, with the able assistance of dental students from USC began their day’s work. Allan Schechtman, an Orange County contractor, has been helping on Dental Care for Children clinics for over 10 years, making as many as 4 trips a year to assist Dr. Tozzer.

The scene became like a busy beehive. Dentists were practicing their craft, Rotarians were giving children gifts and hugs; and, those who were bi-lingual were assisting with translations between dentists and patients.

But, dentistry was not all that was on the work schedule for that day. Rotarians also got their hands dirty by helping to paint the little school. Rotarians with paint brushes and rollers in hand, were intent on the success of their school beautification project. Parents of the waiting children helped as well by painting or sprucing up the little garden in the schoolyard.

ISRC Rotarian Diane Braasch and others brought school supplies and gifts for the children while Rick Topping gave out 20 assorted soccer and volley balls donated by coach Shelly Noble of Loara High School in Anaheim.

During that Saturday’s dental clinic, 49 children received dental attention amounting to $16,825 of free services. And the approximately 30 Rotarians, from both sides of the border had the satisfaction of knowing they made all this possible.

That evening the Club Rotario Ensenada Calafia hosted their club’s twelfth anniversary dinner in the Spanish style courtyard and garden of the home of Elsa Cortes a Past President of the Ensenada Califa club. The guest list included such luminaries as past and present Rotary International dignitaries, District Governors and Club Presidents. The Irvine Spectrum Rotary Club volunteers were honored guests at the evening’s festivities, and ISRC President Pannkaj Kummar presented the Ensenada club with a beautiful framed picture collage of past Ensenada dental clinics in honor of their club’s anniversary. It was a magical evening, filled with emotion and the satisfaction that humanity had once again been served through Rotary.