The clinic draws support from around the country, but much of the backing is from the Beavercreek Rotary. Doctors Bruce Brumfiel, Jim Jambor and Dave Stewart are Beavercreek Rotarians who have volunteered their time at the clinic near the Guatemalan border.
“She’s really the story of the thing,” Brumfiel said of Juan, who has worked three days per week for 26 years. “We just try to help her with as much money as we can raise and as much volunteer help that we can send out.”
Last year, that help included Brumfiel’s daughter, Caitlin, a premed student at Ohio State University. “Somebody is down there every year,” Bruce Brumfiel said.
The clinic has grown from humble beginnings to a sprawling, 20,000-square foot complex that includes an emergency room, three exam rooms and a chapel.
Brumfiel said doctors with different specialties visit and that a team of four doctors may see 200 to 250 patients per day. Currently, he said a plastic surgeon is at the clinic. “We’ve had dozens and dozens of people (from the Miami Valley) who have been down,” he said. “It’s a give-back sort of thing.”
Brumfiel said that in a quarter-century, more than $100,000 has been raised for a variety of projects. The clinic provides affordable health care for the sick, pre- and post-natal care for women, day care services for the elderly and is a shelter for battered and abused women and children.
Support for the clinic comes from around the globe, but a big chunk comes from Greene County. Still, Brumfiel said the credit should go to Juan, who has lived in Belize for more than 40 years. “She’s down there to stay,” he said. “She’s the one who really has been the heart and soul of the thing.”
For more information or to contribute, write to Good Shepherd Clinic, Box F301, 726 E. Main St., Suite F, Lebanon, OH 45036.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or mgokavi@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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