Volunteer Jack Horvath Prepares Boxes of Medical Supplies

Longtime MedShare volunteer Jack Horvath tapes boxes of medical supplies packed by other volunteers. These boxes will be sent to hospitals in need around the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BjIjV4Kze0

Does this inspire you to volunteer? Click here to sign up – we’d love to have you!

Volunteer Spotlight: Nanetta Pon

Nanetta (front, center) at a 2011 container shipment ceremony

“Nanetta Pon has volunteered with us 60 times (that’s 180 hours!) since she first started in April 2009 when she was only 14 or 15 years old. She has the most hours of any of our volunteers under age 18. She volunteers out of her own motivation; not because she has to fulfill some community service requirement.

We enjoy working with Nanetta. She is willing to do anything we ask and she works hard during the time she’s here. It is impressive that she keeps coming back when I know she has a very busy schedule with high school and other outside activities.” – Terry Monday, Volunteer Programs Manager

Name: Nanetta Pon

Age and Occupation: Seventeen-year-old high school student

Hometown: Fremont, California

Please describe yourself in one sentence.I like to get involved in great causes.

When did you first hear about MedShare? I found it while searching on VolunteerMatch for opportunities open to teenagers.

How would you describe your volunteer experience at MedShare? Wonderful! The volunteer coordinators and other volunteers are always welcoming, sorting is fun, and I learn something new about medical procedures every time.

How long have you been volunteering at MedShare? Since 2009

What inspired you to get involved? I’d been involved in my school’s recycling program, so it was MedShare’s environmental side that first interested me. I liked the idea of keeping supplies out of landfills. It was only after I’d started volunteering that I realized how much it was helping save people’s lives.

What is it that motivates you to keep volunteering at MedShare? MedShare is great about letting each volunteer know that he/she is making a difference, from the flags to the pictures to the stories people come in to tell. They keep me inspired to keep coming to the warehouse.

Have you been involved with MedShare in other ways besides sorting supplies? If so, please explain. This is more about MedShare helping me out: Last year I received a giant box of old, unsortable gloves to bring to my school. We’re still using them during our weekly sort of the school’s bottles and cans.

What has been your favorite MedShare moment or story during your time serving with us? After the iPad came out, one of the sorters accidentally got our table excited over a box of eye pads.

This story is an excerpt from our January e-news. To read more – including a story of fate’s role in a Haiti container delivery and a college MedTeam in Honduras – click here.

Repost: MedShare Made 2nd Shipment of Medical Aid

On January 17, 2012, MedShare’s Western Region shipped a container of medical supplies and equipment to Tonga. The Tonga Government posted a press release announcing this shipment, and we wanted to share it with you. (To view the original, click here.)

MedShare Made 2nd Shipment of Medical Aid

On the 17th of January 2012, award-winning charity MedShare shipped a 40-foot ocean container of medical supplies and equipment designated for the two island groups of Niuatoputapu and ‘Eua, in Tonga.

Lord Tuita, Consul General of the Kingdom of Tonga in San Francisco, attended the shipment ceremony.

Lord Tuita, Tonga Consul General, San Francisco; Taylor Butterfield; Chuck Haupt, Executive Director, MedShare's Western Region

This container of critically-needed medical supplies and equipment was coordinated (including the seafreight) by Taylor Butterfield from Sacramento, California, who has undertaken this project as a part of his Boy Scout Eagle Award.

This is the 2nd container of medical supplies and equipment that has been sent by MedShare to the Kingdom.

Tonga Consul General Lord Tuita with Executive Director, MedShare W. Region) during the ceremony marking MedShare's second shipment of medical aid to Tonga

MedShare is an innovative non-profit organization and operates California’s first large-scale surplus medical supply recycler which mobilizes tons of excess medical supplies through cooperation with various manufacturers and its 29 local partner hospitals.

Founded in 1998, MedShare is consistently ranked as one of the United States most efficient charities, and has successfully delivered over 750 containers of aid to 90 developing nations.

In Haiti, Fate Coincides Arrival of Atlanta Nonprofit’s Medical Shipment with Fatal Wreck

Shortly before midnight in Haiti on Monday, a truck’s brakes failed and it crashed into a small bus, then careened onto the sidewalk of one of Port-au-Prince’s busiest streets. An estimated 29 people were killed and 67 were injured. Fate coincided a same-day arrival of an ocean container of medical supplies and equipment, which will enable many to receive lifesaving treatment.

The oft-undersupplied Port-au-Prince’s Hopital General, where many of the survivors were taken, is able to provide treatment thanks to the Atlanta-based nonprofit MedShare.

“I thank you for the first container which arrived at a perfect time. The First Lady has ordered retrieval of the container immediately. There was a terrible accident in Port-au-Prince on Monday evening … The Hopital General in the city needs a lot of supplies,” says Mona Adam, Nurse, Special Envoy of the First Lady of Haiti, Sophie Martelly.

The ocean container was sent from MedShare, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that recovers and redistributes medical supplies and equipment. The container was sponsored by a metro Atlanta not-for-profit hospital. The container left Atlanta on December 1, 2011 and arrived in Haiti on January 16, 2012.

“The 1,000+ boxes of supplies on this shipment will make a difference to Haitians in their time of emergency,” says Meridith Rentz, CEO of MedShare. “Both before and after the 2010 earthquake, Haiti has held a special place in the heart of our organization, and we are committed to the ongoing strengthening of their healthcare system.”

In the organization’s 14 years, MedShare has shipped a total of 72 ocean containers containing over $8.8 million worth of medical supplies and equipment to Haiti. The most recent container left on January 11, 2012.