Another container is in the process of being filled for Williams Lake’s sister city Sosua, Dominican Republic.
Several more pieces of equipment needed to set up a dental clinic in Sosua were donated last week by the Cariboo Dental Clinic.
These items include two dental chairs valued at about $10,000 each (used) and dental lights with a total value of about $5,000, (used) plus a few dentist stools.
This dental equipment joins a dental X-ray unit donated earlier by Dr. Rudy Wassenaar for the clinic.
The equipment in both cases was being replaced with more modern technology but still in good shape for a country where many people don’t have access to dental care.
Technicians from Sinclair Dental, a company that both Cariboo Dental Clinic and Wassenaar use, have offered to go to Sosua to help install the equipment.
Both Wassenaar and the Cariboo Dental Clinic’s Dr. Perry Vitoratos also hope to go to Sosua to do volunteer dentistry in the future.
The container will be shipped to Sosua later this year and hopefully arrive in December in time for Christmas, says Glen Lahey, who founded KidsExplore with his wife Debbie and heads up Williams Lake’s sister city project with Sosua.
The container also includes donations of beds and other older hospital equipment from Deni House. This latest container is the third container of help that Williams Lake and area residents have filled and sent to Sosua with everything from household goods to clothing, blankets, crutches, sewing machines, medical equipment and supplies.
People can continue to drop off donations at Chuck’s Auto on Mackenzie Avenue, but at the request of the DR government clothing will not be accepted, Lahey says.
The following is a list of badly needed new or slightly used items to help fill the container.
Sporting equipment, baseball, basketball and soccer uniforms and caps, baseballs, bats gloves shoes, basketballs and shoes, soccer balls, basketball hoops and nets, and kids’ soccer nets, all types of camping gear to be used for emergencies during the yearly floods. Tents in good condition, stoves, cooking utensils, axes, tarps, folding chairs, and small charcoal and propane barbecues, school materials including notebooks, construction paper, children’s scissors, folders, pencils, pens, erasers, batteries, molding clay, legos, tape, umbrellas and children’s rain ponchos, backpacks, calculators, and dominos.
“No educational books, please,” Lahey says.
Children’s story books, medium and small stuffed animals, hot wheels, dolls and other toys, baby supplies, washable diapers, disposable diapers, bottles, baby clothing, toys, blankets, cribs. Sewing machines, material, needles, and supplies. Kitchen supplies, silverware, tupperware, plastic and normal cups, plates, pots pans, etc., blankets, sheets, rain ponchos, ladies’ and children’s sun hats, caps, men’s and children’s baseball style caps and running shoes, eye glasses, hospital and home medical equipment, wheelchairs, crutches, canes, walkers, tooth brushes, hair brushes, combs, girl’s hair accessories, and costume jewelry, working computers, (2008 or newer), and any working lap-top computers (badly needed).
