Abby Nadeau
Community Editor

Usually class reunions involve speeches, photos, some punch and a lot of reminiscing. Usually class reunions happen in the city where the students attend class, or at least in the same state.

But for a group of women from the former Lutheran Deaconess Nursing School in South Minneapolis, punch and photos were not enough for the class of 1967.

They were looking for something to honor the “Christian services” motto the Deaconess focused on.

So Fairview Lakes employee and Wyoming resident Jan Brainard, along with Kathleen Morford, Carol Germ, and Ann Brostrom, decided to create a class reunion with a mission.

The Mission

The four women signed up for a medical mission trip to Honduras through a collaboration between Total Health and the Fairview Foundation Medical Missions.

They were paired up with a medical group that consisted of three doctors and a fourth year medical student. With the four additional nurses, the group’s mission was to treat patients who have a lack of medical resources.

And on Saturday, May 19 the adventure began.

The clinics

The group’s home base was designated at a clinic in La Ceiba, Honduras. Brainard said that from their base they traveled to two smaller communities called Olanchito, Yoro and Quebrada Grande.

In each occasion the doctor to patient ratio was astounding.

Just as the doctors and nurses were showing up at 7 a.m., a line was already forming to get into the clinic, even though the clinic wouldn’t open until 9 a.m.

Brainard, and her four classmates, said they mainly worked in pre-clinic treatment.

The clinic was outside and instead of having separate rooms for the doctors and nurses to evaluate the patients, they were all seated at tables in a large outdoor area.

Each nurse, who was paired with an interpreter, spoke with the patients to find out what ailed them.

Brainard said she saw a lot of patients with similar medical needs like pregnancy and hypertension, but many patients were dealing with parasites.

“Parasites are just a fact of life there,” Brainard said. “They have all the needs we have, but they have very limited access to medical care.”

Beyond the pre-clinic work, Brainard and the others helped with minor procedures and the pharmacists to dispense medication.

Brainard said that for 20 lempiras or $1, patients could see a doctor, be treated and given a months worth of medication.

The group spent five days working in clinics all over Honduras including Quebrada Grande where they had to cross an “Indiana Jones” style bridge, with missing planks, to cross a river.

Beyond Medicine

While traveling from city to city the medical group stayed with families who were associated with a local church.

Brainard said that although the families cooked for them and the food was “great,” they were still very cautious to drink only bottled water and stayed away from fruit.

When the weren’t aiding doctors, Brainard said they played games with the children waiting to be seen or waiting for their parents.

“Toys are universal,” Brainard said smiling.

The nurses improvised a game of “duck, duck, goose” to “duck, duck, cow.” They also brought items such as T-shirts, shorts and balloons for the children.

“We wanted the kids to know it was okay to see these strange people,” Brainard said laughing.

Over the five days the medical group was in Honduras they helped over 600 patients with their medical needs.

On Saturday, May 26 the group returned to the United States. Brainard said that the trip was perfect.

“We had the time to take it, it just all came together Brainard said. “For the four of us it was the right time and the right place.”

The Lutheran Deaconess Nursing School in Minneapolis closed in the 1980s and no longer exists.

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