It is with pleasure that we introduce the Lawrence D. Dorr Operation Walk Scholarship winner for 2024, Dr. Kamran Movassaghi. This scholarship was founded by Operation Walk Los Angeles Angel and long-time donor, Ms. Paula Paulus, to honor and celebrate Dr. Dorr’s distinguished career. This scholarship grants fourth or fifth-year residents in orthopedic surgery, aspiring to specialize in joint arthroplasty, the opportunity to participate in Operation Walk’s international missions.
As we gear up for our mission to the Philippines this summer, we have received several requests from locals and their families. These requests describe hardworking people whose lives have been interrupted by joint disease, damage to their knees and hips due to accidents, and other debilitating causes. One such individual is Jeffrey Busog. His wife wrote to us in January with the hope that her husband could be considered as a potential patient for our upcoming mission at our partner hospital in General Santos City. Team Leader, Lisa Fujimoto PA, coordinated with the hospital administrators to find him a place on the screening list. Jeffrey will be evaluated, like all potential patients, orthopedically and medically to see if he qualifies for surgery. Below is his story.
During our most recent mission to Tanzania, we had the rare occurrence of three family members volunteering and working side by side. Kyle, Ava, and Kate Baldwin made the journey working in Physical Therapy, as Administrative Coordinator, and in the OR respectively. Since the inception of Operation Walk, this family has dedicated their time, talents, and service to helping restore mobility one surgery at a time. Hear how their involvement in our organization and this trip has and continues to shape their lives.
When you join our group of philanthropists, you help provide life-changing surgeries to those in desperate need of a miracle. But beyond that, you help to build a bridge between donors and patients. Our Angels have the opportunity to make a direct impact on the lives of our patients, their families, and their communities.
Our Angels all are motivated by our commitment to Operation Walk, here are some of their whys.
We wanted to share the progress of two patients operated on our 2023 mission to Arusha, Tanzania. Both Innocent and Amina are doing well and finding a rhythm to their lives after joint replacement surgery.
In the next few months, we will be exploring the family connection within the Operation Walk organization. Team members have often raised their children in our community and emphasized the importance of volunteerism, service, compassion and giving back to both the local and the global community. These second-generation volunteers bring a new energy, spirit, and vision to Operation Walk. Often young volunteers go into the field of health care to become the new face of medicine.
This month’s story features the Holsbeke family. Matt Holsbeke NP and his wife, Sandy Holsbeke PT, have been active members of our team for almost twenty years. They’ve dedicated many hours to fundraising, organizing and participating in mission trips around the world. Matt explains his commitment.
These past few months we’ve featured young volunteers who are stepping up to be the next generation of volunteers for Operation Walk Los Angeles. We’re happy to introduce University of Wisconsin-Madison student, Isabella Umali-Grawe. We thank Isabella in advance for taking time to out of her busy schedule during midterms to share information about herself, her goals after graduation, and why it is important for her to volunteer on our upcoming mission to the Philippines this summer.
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This past summer during our recent mission to Arusha, Tanzania, we had the honor of meeting Juliana and her daughter, Josepha.
Juliana and Josepha live in the countryside about an hour and a half outside of Arusha. Juliana used to travel by bus, a three-hour round trip to Arusha, six days a week to work at her job in a textile mill. She worked at the factory for over twenty years before the onset of osteoarthritis in her knees started to slow her down both on her travels into the city and at her job.
Since 1987, Project C.U.R.E has been delivering life-saving medical equipment and supplies to hospitals and clinics throughout the world. They are the world’s largest distributor of donated international medical relief, touching lives in over 135 countries.
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Congratulations to our volunteers from Kaiser Permanente on earning the Kaiser Permanente David Lawrence Community Service Award for outstanding volunteer action. This award named in honor of Dr. David Lawrence, former CEO of Kaiser Permanente and lifelong advocate of improving health worldwide, recognizes individuals and groups that demonstrate extraordinary efforts to improve the health of local communities and beyond. Read more
We wanted to share the progress of our student volunteer, Sarina Parks and her continued efforts to collect items to help our patients during our 2024 mission to the Philippines.
Thank you, Sarina, for your dedication and hard work! We can’t wait to hear more.
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