Summary: The guest on this week’s show was Pleasant Valley Rotary President and RN Kathy Kruger, who describes Rotaplast (Rotary + Plastic Surgery), a program that heals children with cleft palate or cleft lip around the world. Cleft palate is literally a hole in the roof of the mouth and cleft lip is one or two splits in the lip, which may extend all the way up a child’s face. A Rotaplast team of usually 15 professional surgeons, dentists, and nurses supported by another 15 nonprofessional volunteers travels to a third-world country where they are supported by a local Rotary club as they perform the operations over a 2- to 3-week period. Kathy tells also of her experience from a 2007 trip to the Philippines where she was a nurse volunteer, and concludes the interview by reading a remarkable thank-you letter from one the children served.
