Place setting by Lisa Eppolito (left) and vase by Ron Nasca.
A fundraiser – featuring works of art created by more than a dozen area artists – is underway to raise money to purchase medicine and medical supplies that SUNY Fredonia students will take along with them to Honduras, where they serve on medical brigades that provide needed health care.
Fifteen students were planning to go to Honduras in January 2022, but all January study abroad courses have been cancelled due to the pandemic. Funds funds raised by this year’s art sale will be appropriated towards the purchase of supplies and medicine for the January 2023 program.
Four Fredonia alumni, Department of Biology Professor Ted Lee and a group from Tacoma, Wash., are planning for five brigades in early January 2022 in Honduras. In August 2021, a group focused on patients with chronic conditions, but in January the clinics will be open to all patients. The villages are larger than the ones Fredonia faculty/emeriti, students and alumni visited on their first trips and there is a need for prenatal vitamins in a short time frame. Professor Lee is asking those interested to purchase some to donate, adding it would be greatly appreciated! They need to have an expiration date of June 2022 or later and should have biotin and iron. A pediatrician with the Tacoma group said the biggest impact from the brigades is on women of child-bearing age. Professor Lee noted he does need to send information in advance on all medicines and vitamins the group is bringing down to Honduras, so any donations need to be received in the next couple of weeks.
Please email Dr. Lee with questions.
Art work for sale, comprised of mostly ceramics, along with wood items and prints, is by 15 artists that include School of Music Professor David Rudge, Dr. Lee, SUNY Distinguished Professor Alberto Rey, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus Marv Bjurlin, University Police Chief Emeritus Ann Burns, alumni Lisa Eppolito, Rhonda Lee, Jacob Swanson and Carol Samuelson, former student Ron Nasca, of Mudslingers Studio, along with Michelle Ballachino, Paula Coats, Elliott Hutton, Amy Snyder and Sarah Zielonka.
A display of the art work to be sold has been set up outside of Science Center Room 126.
To purchase an item, make a donation, or get additional information about the sale, go online.
Fredonia students enrolled in the Study Abroad: Honduras Health Care INED 315 course went to Honduras, one of the most poverty-stricken countries in South America, in January in two of the last three years to help set up health clinics that are staffed by physicians and provide medication at no cost to residents in rural areas.
