Thanks, Amazon users!
A sincere thanks to everyone who has been supporting Shoulder to Shoulder with
their Amazon.com purchases through the link on the website! All donations made through Amazon are anonymous, so we can’t thank you each by name, but your
support is very much appreciated. Keep it up

Other Ways to Help!

“I Do” – Getting hitched? Know someone who is? Raise funds for Shoulder to Shoulder through the I Do Foundation. Create a wedding registry through the I Do site with partner stores and receive a donation to Shoulder to Shoulder for every item purchased. Add a charitable giving option to your wedding celebration. Or make a donation to Shoulder to Shoulder in honor of your guests with unique wedding favors! The I Do Foundation makes it easy to “celebrate generously!” (www.idofoundation.org)

Highway to Help – Donate a car, boat, trailer, RV, or motorcycle through America’s Car Donation Center and the proceeds of your vehicle donation can go to Shoulder to Shoulder! ACDC handles all the details, from towing to tax deduction paperwork – they’ll even throw in a free vacation! See www.donateacar.com for details.

Paying It Forward

For many donors, it is easy to see the impact of a donation to Shoulder to Shoulder: A $400 donation pays for a yearlong scholarship, $15 purchases a water-filter for a needy family, and just a small amount helps support nutritional supplements for malnourished children. But donations often make a difference in unexpected ways and achieve extraordinary results.

 
University of Cincinnati College of Nursing alum Janet Johnson's example speaks to this many times over. Janet’s financial contributions to the College of Nursing are dedicated to student brigade members’ trips, and have helped numerous students put their skills into practice while serving the poor of Honduras. Inspired by her own brigade travels to the Dominican Republic, Janet realized that the success of such trips can be measured in more than just patients seen, medications distributed, or children fed. They can be measured in part by the impact that they’ve had in the lives of two students, Diana Rogalski and Alex Freisthler, who have turned their brigade experiences into something extraordinary.
University of Cincinnati College of Nursing alum Janet Johnson
Chicago native, Diana Rogalski, first traveled with Shoulder to Shoulder as a senior in the UC College of Nursing and felt an immediate connection with Honduras, its culture, and especially its people. Diana says that she was originally drawn to a career in nursing because it offered a unique opportunity to interact and connect with people on a personal level, and found that this was exactly what her first brigade experience gave her – the chance to work face-to-face with the local population, “People who were grateful for my help and gracious with their hospitality.”
Diana Rogalski has a deep connection with Honduras, its culture and its people

After graduation, Diana continued her involvement in Shoulder to Shoulder as a member of two consecutive January brigades and soon decided she wanted to commit to a long-term stay in Santa Lucia.
Working in the ICU at Lutheran General in Chicago, IL, her hometown, Diana began saving money for a long-term rotation but soon realized that her lack of Spanish language skills might hamper her work and dampen the overall impact of her visit. So though she still plans on returning to Honduras in the future, Diana decided that the people she had seen and befriended in Honduras couldn’t wait – they needed help in the meantime. So Diana continued to raise funds but changed her focus: instead of funding a trip, she would make a large donation directly to Shoulder to Shoulder. At just 24 years of age, Diana has since made not only an extremely generous donation of $10,000.00 – including the money she had originally saved for her rotation – but has worked tirelessly to connect her friends and family with Shoulder to Shoulder and encourage them to donate their own time, money, best efforts, and enthusiasm to helping the poor of Honduras.
Like Diana, Alex Freisthler’s connection to international volunteer service began during a brigade while a student of the College of Nursing and continues to this day. Thanks to the impact of his experience and the guidance of Tina Weitkamp, a veteran StoS brigade leader and College of Nursing faculty member, Alex decided to commit to a year of volunteer service in Santa Lucia.
Though his original plan involved working in the Santa Lucia clinic as a nurse, Alex’s job description soon expanded to include construction, electrical engineering, and medical & dental equipment maintenance as well.
Alex Freisthler helps oversee the gerneral on-site maintenance of the clinic in addition to working on the clinic's nursing staff.

He now helps oversees the general on-site maintenance of the clinic and ensures its systems are in working order in addition to working on the clinic’s nursing staff. Recently, Alex has almost singlehandedly built a maternity clinic in the Santa Lucia clinic’s former library space. This new wing now includes a waiting room, post-partum area, hogares, and a nursing station with a kitchenette.

As Alex’s yearlong commitment winds to an end, he has committed to a further six months of volunteer work bringing healthcare to those that truly need it. This is the real reward of working on-site with Shoulder to Shoulder, says Alex, seeing not only the tremendous impact even the smallest healthcare improvements make in people’s daily lives but the genuine appreciation from those he is able to serve. “The appreciation here for things we take for granted in the States is obvious, but so is the impact. It’s much easier here to draw a line from healthcare improvements to how the other areas of people’s lives are positively affected.”

Alex says he believes that the same ripple effect applies to giving of all sorts. “Whether it’s setting up a field clinic in an underserved area here in Honduras or donating your money, time, and enthusiasm to a cause in the States, the good always multiplies.” In the same way, Freisthler is grateful for the help of others, including Janet and Tina, and realizes just how much it has impacted him personally. “It’s hard to put a value on that first brigade experience,” he says, “But I hope I’m paying it forward every day I’m here.”

All of us at Shoulder to Shoulder and Hombro a Hombro would like to extend our sincerest thanks to Janet, Diana, and Alex for their commitment and contributions to the people we serve. We hope that donations like Janet’s continue to inspire the kind of further investment of time, money, and energy that Alex and Diana have given our organization.

To donate online, please
visit www.shouldertoshoulder.org
or, if you would prefer
to pay by check, please make your contribution payable
to Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc.
and mail it to:
Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc.
4754 Chapel Ridge Dr
Cincinnati, Ohio 45223

To remove your name from our mailing list, please click here.

Questions or comments? E-mail us at info@shouldertoshoulder.org
or call 513-685-7007