Fourteen students and two faculty members volunteered at Mission of Mercy on Oct. 15-16. This annual medical charity event offers free dental, vision and hearing services to those in need.<\/p>\n
Seven of the 14 SFU students who attended the event volunteered as translators.<\/p>\n
English Professor Tim Bintrim is proud of students for using their linguistic skills to help others.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last six years, SFU has provided at least six to eight translators, usually in Spanish, but also this year in French, Russian and ASL,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As a double-major in Spanish and Communications, Mission of Mercy is very special to me. I have volunteered as a translator at the event for the last three years.<\/p>\n
I never forget the people I connect with. Last year, I bonded with a Venezuelan family.<\/p>\n
They shared their culture and stories with me. I especially enjoyed spending time with the kids.<\/p>\n
That family attended Mission of Mercy again this year. We immediately recognized each other, and they greeted me with hugs.<\/p>\n
Natalie Floder, a junior Health Sciences major, volunteered as a Russian translator. She helped a Ukrainian mother and daughter at Mission of Mercy last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came [to the United States] about four years ago because of the war,\u201d Floder said.<\/p>\n
The mother had severe hearing loss. She was grateful to receive new hearing aids.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mother, because she could finally hear, grabbed me and said, \u2018your voice is so pretty,\u2019\u201d Floder said.<\/p>\n
Other SFU students served as general volunteers. Ella Scott, a sophomore Biology major with a Pre-Dental concentration, has volunteered for the last two years at the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite thing about volunteering is getting a closer look at my future,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter graduation, I would like to go on to dental school and eventually specialize in pediatrics or orthodontics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being able to help change lives at Mission of Mercy inspires Scott.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will definitely be back next year and hopefully many years after that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mission of Mercy transforms the lives of both patients and volunteers. Every year, I return to campus with more gratitude and faith in humanity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe joined 1,900 health professionals who worked two very long days, saving about 1,600 of their neighbors from pain and illness,\u201d Bintrim said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat could be better?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fourteen students and two faculty members volunteered at Mission of Mercy on Oct. 15-16. This annual medical charity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-312556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}