A few weeks ago, Scarborough High School 2005 graduate, Helen Mattsson paid a visit to Scarborough Rotary Club to thank the club for her high school experience of the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) program. Mattsson got so much from being a participant in 2003 that, ever since, she has come back to be a program facilitator. On this day, she stopped in to tell the club what the RYLA experience had inspired her to do.

Mattsson will graduate from University of Maine in 2009 with a degree in molecular and cellular biology, and a minor in pre-medical studies. Mattsson will be traveling to Ecuador for two weeks in March with the University of Maine nonprofit group, MEDLIFE (Medicine, Education and Development for Low Income Families Everywhere). MEDLIFE was founded by the University of Maine in 2005. Since then, student chapters have been started at Dartmouth, University of Vermont and the University of New England.

MEDLIFE’s mission is to help families achieve greater freedom from the constraints of poverty by empowering them to live healthier lives. This is accomplished by offering both emergent and preventative health care through educational outreach programs. The 18-member group Mattson will be traveling with will include translators, two physicians and a dentist.

Staying in a hostel for two full weeks, Mattsson will travel to different rural communities each day. Most of the villages she will visit have no running water, electricity or access to medical care. Patients will travel great distances by foot so that their children may see one of the physicians or dentists in the group.

Mattsson asked nothing of the club. She simply wanted to express her appreciation for a program that changed her life, and offered to share her experience when she returned. Club members were delighted to see the leadership fruits of the RYLA program develop into mission, career and community service. When the club’s “happy dollar” basket made its rounds, more dollars than usual landed in the basket. The club chose to dedicate all the happy dollars to her trip in the next few weeks.

It became a fundraising project that didn’t stop there. The next week, Portland Sea Dog player Jay Johnson came to speak. He offered a gift: four tickets to any Sea Dog game this summer, complete with an opportunity to throw the first pitch. The club chose to sell raffle tickets to raise money for Mattsson’s MEDLIFE mission.

Everyone should have access to adequate medical care. For Americans, the situation in Ecuador may be something hard to grasp. Mattsson’s experience will expose her to a world beyond the one we’re familiar with. Help her give the gift of health care that we all have come to expect here in the U.S.

A donation of $5 for one raffle ticket or three for $10 will help with mission expenses. Raffle entries are available at Tim Byrne Photography, the Real Estate Store, Scarborough Downs, Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Associates, Rainy Day Train or by calling 883-5809.

Pitch in and take a chance – one lucky winner will be throwing out the first pitch this summer at a Sea Dogs game.