The Rotary Club of Playa del Carmen Seaside, with a network of Rotary partners in the United States, has an opportunity to arrange a for container-load of medical equipment and supplies, with a estimated value in excess of $400,000 US Dollars, to be donated and shipped to the new Red Cross hospital in Playa del Carmen. Here’s how:
It starts with Project C.U.R.E (projectcure.org) a Colorado based non-profit whose mission is to receive large quantities of equipment donations from US hospitals and put it – in “like new” condition – in the hands of hospitals with needs. All equipment is inspected and certified in good condition. Once our project is approved, Playa Red Cross personnel will have password access to Projectcure’s vast inventory that will allow them to select what they need, much like shopping on-line and “filling a cart”.
Once the selections are finalized, the equipment needs to be packed into a container and shipped to Playa del Carmen. That’s where Rotary comes into the picture. There are handling fees and shipping costs of approximately $20,000 required for Project C.U.R.E. to package, load and document the container, and to ship it here. Rotary partners in Denver and Chicago in the United States will raise approximately one half of the required $20,000. We have committed to raising the rest. We have pledged $5,000 USD, almost the entire proceeds of our first annual Seaside Rotary Golf Classic last October, to this cause. We have also recently pledged an additional $5,000 USD from the proceeds of our volunteering at the OHL Mayakoba Classic last fall, meaning that our Club has raised the entire $10,000 USD required from Mexico.
There is much paperwork, documentation and detail work that still needs to be done. But by mid-summer, a container – load of equipment should be backing into the Red Cross Hospital’s driveway. It will be a great day for our local Red Cross, and a proud day indeed for the Rotary Club of Playa del Carmen Seaside.