The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Thanks to donations from close family and predominately the United Presbyterian Church of Stronghurst, Hannah Wood of Carthage, will be able to go on a once in a lifetime trip.
Hannah attends SIUE pursing a PharmD (Doctorate of Pharmacy) degree. The pharmacy and dental program at SIUe offers a volunteer week-long trip to Jamaica.
The selection process is meticulous, they only select 8 members from each program. Hannah had to apply and tell why she thought she would be a good addition to the team. She was accepted!
So, in July 2023 Hannah will be traveling to Jamaica for a week to help at 3 different clinics over 4 days. The pharmacy students (Hannah) will do everything in their power to get as many people back to see the dental students by conducting the work-up exams before the dental students perform any oral care the patient may need.
"One of the pharmacy professors who is leading this trip has been to Jamaica for this volunteer trip 15 times, and he said we can expect to help 100s of patients each day and possibly over a 1000 people during the trip!" Hannah said. "They range from little kids to elderly patients and everywhere in between," she continued.
The pharmacy students, which is Hannah, will be conducting the work up exam before the dental students perform a free cleaning. Once Hannah returns from her trip she will be writing a story to tell about her experience and the impact this trip has made!
The Presbyterian Church of Stronghurst through its women's Willing Workers organization continues reaching out in supporting mission locally and throughout the world when they are able and when an opportunity arises. They feel fortunate that Hannah is willing to take time from her busy life as a pharmacy student, to travel to Jamicia, a country of over 2,600,000 and impact so many Jamaicans who lack the means for good health care.
Hannah is the daughter of Steve and Heather Rodeffer Wood of Carthage, and has three younger siblings- Halee, Hayden, and Hattie who all attend the Crossing Church in Macomb. Hannah's grandparents are Glen and Eileen Belshaw of Carthage, Jim and Linda Pinick of Branson, MO, and Michael and Dessa Rodeffer of Stronghurst.
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A fun-fact Hannah found out is that Hannah's distant cousin Maggie Rodeffer Krumwiede from La Harpe now of Collinsville, attended the same school and was in the very first Pharmacy class and was selected to go in the first pharmacy group who went on the mission trip to Jamaica and performed the same service.
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Hannah Wood, who will be 22 on January 22, a Pharmacy student at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (SIUE), has been selected to go on a mission trip to help Jamaicans with dental care, and she is excited.