Medical mission to Mexico leaves Saturday

COLFAX –– The Colfax Rotary, local emergency responders and several local churches teamed up to form and send a team to do community and medical service in Mexico from March 16 through March 22.

Rosalia Fire District 7 Chief Laura Lautenschlager said she teamed up with Reverend Michael Birnbaum when he approached her after a presentation for the Colfax Rotary Club. Birnbaum said that Lautenschlager seemed like the kind of person who would be interested in doing this.

Birnbaum and Lautenschlager are organizing and leading the team that will be providing medical assistance or serving in a community center providing help for low-income women and children in Puerto Penasco, the Baja area of Mexico.

Birnbaum said that there are a couple of EMT students who will also attend the service trip and have the opportunity to be taught emergency Spanish.

Lautenschlager said that it will be fun to learn something new even though it’s not something she has encountered a lot in Whitman County. “It has happened a couple of times were we’ve had a non-english speaking patient,” she said.

The Whitman County Gazette will be sending staff to assist and report on the trip, with a special publication to follow shortly after the team returns on March 22.