Donated ambulance, medical supplies sent to Mexico

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This may be one of the larger Christmas presents given in north Utah Valley this year.

A donated ambulance stuffed with donated medical supplies was expected to leave Alpine this morning, heading to a small town in Mexico.

For about the past decade, developer Will Jones has been traveling to South America as a volunteer with the Hirsche Smiles Foundation to help thousands of youth in Guatemala and Mexico. The team performs surgery on children who would otherwise grow up with birth defects that are routinely repaired in the United States.

Recently, it came to the attention of volunteers that a hospital in the area of Cuauhtemoc, Mexico, needed not only an ambulance but the equipment routinely used inside the ambulance. Jones decided to make it happen.

Working with Alpine, Cedar Hills and Highland, Jones got an old ambulance from the Lone Peak Fire Department. Jones said the ambulance was donated; others said Jones was being modest and had actually purchased the ambulance.

Local donations, including three Scout projects, have helped to fill the ambulance with medical supplies.

"It is chock full of donated items," said Sandra Mangum of Hirsche Smiles. "They will be excited to get it."

And those items are not small or inexpensive. They include a surgical operating hospital bed, an EKG machine, a defibrillator, a machine to sterilize surgical tools and other equipment.

Getting the ambulance and donations to Mexico has taken months of planning. Jones, who spearheaded donations to get the ambulance fixed up, was expected to leave today, driving the ambulance to Mexico himself and flying back. Health ministry officials and the mayor of Cuauhtemoc, Mexico, were expected to meet him at the border, and border guards have been notified to expect the ambulance.

Cuauhtemoc is actually a lot like Alpine, said Jones, who is also a member of the Hirsche Smiles board.

"It sits up in the hills and its major crop is fruit: lots of apples," he said.

Jones said he actually just returned from another humanitarian mission to the area three weeks ago.

"I go because it is the greatest privilege I get," he said. "I love being there. It makes you ready to do another six years of work. ... I would go every week, but I would have to figure out a way to make a living."

Using volunteer doctors and nurses who pay their own way on humanitarian medical trips, it costs the foundation only $265 for the supplies necessary to fix a cleft palate, Jones said. He is hoping the donation of the ambulance will raise awareness about the need to help those who need this surgery.

For information about Hirsche Smiles, visit www.HirscheSmiles.org. Donations can be made in the name of Hirsche Smiles at any branch of the Bank of American Fork.