IU medical students give back

For the Timmy Foundation, spring break trips are more than tan lines and beaches.\nThe Foundation promotes awareness of poverty, its effects and underlying issues of social, political and economic situations. Each year, groups of 20 students or more travel around the world on medical mission trips during their spring vacations.\nIn 1997, Dr. Charles Dietzen began a personal commitment serving children in need of medical care. He named the foundation after his brother, Timmy. IU is the first university to have a chapter of the Timmy Foundation.\nStudents and professionals from all areas of medicine representing the Timmy Foundation travel to poverty-stricken areas and provide medical supplies along with the information needed to stay healthy. The group receives a majority of their money through donations and grants. The main office is located in Indianapolis.\nSeniors John Dionisios Aliprantis and Aaron Remenschneider traveled with Dietzen on a few trips during high school and were inspired to organize a trip through IU.\nThis year the students plan to travel to the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Haiti and possibly a fourth location, if funding and doctors are available. The board members periodically meet to update each other on fund raising progress and planning for the medical mission trips.\nThe IU Timmy Foundation consists mainly of undergrad pre-medical students. Besides the trips and fund raising, the IU chapter focuses on issues that concern students, such as career avenues and salary concerns.\n"When I first became involved with the foundation, I decided it was worth it for me to try something new and gain an experience like no other I had had," senior member Natalie Best said.\nStudents get hands-on experience with a doctor-patient relationship, entailing everything from taking blood pressure to reading to and comforting children.\n"The trip reaffirmed why I want to be a doctor and why I want to dedicate my life to service," senior Joe Sisley said. "I learned more in a week than I can learn in years of book work."\nThe members have their own ideas about why the Foundation is important.\n"I think it is so worthwhile for someone our age to give back to others," Sisley said.\nIf supplies are not donated, members raise funds to cover costs. All travel expenses are out-of-pocket.\nRecently the group handed out suckers and collected donations at local grocery stores. The members also plan to gift wrap presents at Borders this holiday season to raise donations. In November, Donatos is giving 10 percent of its proceeds to the Timmy Foundation during certain business hours.\nMany students and doctors go on the trips to assist those less fortunate citizens of Third-World countries.\nExecutive director of the Timmy Foundation Scott Keller said the IU chapter has amazed the Indianapolis base with its efforts. At a board meeting, Keller praised the group for it efforts.\n"I just admire (the IU chapter)," Keller said. "All the money that has been raised is just uncanny. I hope that ideas from this group will spread to other chapters."\nSince the group's first trip, it has encouraged other colleges, including Purdue and Ball State, to plan similar medical mission trips.\nMore than eight million people die of starvation and malnutrition, and 30 million people die of easily treatable illnesses each year, according to the Timmy Foundation Web site.\n"So often we think that we are informed, compassionate and grateful, but you cannot begin to comprehend the true depth of those words, those emotions, until you take a trip to serve in a Third World country," senior Misha Taber said.\nThe residents aided by the group return the service with gratitude and inspiration.\n"The people we treated possessed so much strength, spirit, patience and gratitude," Taber said. "I was utterly humbled, saddened and yet inspired at the same time."\nStudents said the trips give them a chance to gain a new perspective on life. \n"I have gained a number of unforgettable experiences, which I will always take with me," Best said. "It has helped me give new meaning to my life."\nFor more information about the Timmy Foundation, go to http://www.indiana.edu/~timmyfc/.\n-- Contact staff writer Angela Magana at amagana@indiana.edu.