Alumni and Students Volunteer in Guatemala

Mark Paxton (B.S. '76, zoology) and H.S. Wright III (B.A. '76, Latin American studies) first met in 1973 when they were WSU students living in Streit-Perham Hall.

This March, the two longtime friends traveled with 10 WSU science and Spanish majors to Guatemala to participate, as volunteers, on a service mission with Hearts in Motion (HIM), a nonprofit organization whose goal is to provide care and medical treatment for children, families, and communities.

Paxton, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Spokane, became involved with HIM when he was a surgical resident in 1989. His first half-dozen trips with HIM took him to Colombia, and for the past 14 years he has traveled to Guatemala, where he donates his time and skills repairing cleft lips and palates and other craniofacial deformities in children and adults.

Paxton credits Wright for getting him involved with service trips. In 1974, when they were students, Wright got Paxton to volunteer for Amigos de las Américas (AMIGOS), a transformational youth-led service organization that continues to be involved in projects in more than 1,000 Latin American communities.

That summer Wright worked as the country director for AMIGOS in Nicaragua, and Paxton worked with an immunization program in Ecuador giving vaccinations.

Nearly 30 years later, Paxton invited his longtime friend to accompany him, as a translator, on a HIM trip to Guatemala.

Paxton said, "Since Howard had got me started with these programs, I thought it would be great if we could do another one together."

Because Paxton had been taking WSU and high school science students on the HIM trips, Wright suggested that they provide travel scholarships for foreign language students as well. Those students would be able to facilitate communication between the Spanish-speaking patients and medical personnel.

Carrie Craik, a senior in public relations and Spanish, received one of the first scholarships.

"I was interested in the HIM Guatemala trip because I thought this would be a great opportunity to practice the Spanish I have been learning in a way that would allow me to reach out and help people," said Craik, who translated between volunteer doctors and dentists and people visiting the daily medical and dental clinics.

Craik said, "Reaching out and helping people who truly have so little, and seeing their gratefulness and the small, yet significant, difference it made, had a lasting impression on me."

For May graduate Alexa Ludtke (B.A., Spanish), the trip highlight was being able to tell a Guatemalan woman that she did not have cancer.

Ludtke said, "I joked that I got to take all the fun out of the doctors' jobs because I was always the one who was able to break the good news."

Ludtke said she also learned that there are only a few basic things that people actually need to live a satisfied life.

"It was refreshing to see people who did not need a lot of things in order to be happy," said Ludtke. "The Guatemalan people I met were very thankful and appreciative of everything we were doing for them."

Paxton and Wright agreed that the WSU students proudly reflect WSU's values. "Their energy and enthusiasm for helping kids and families in Latin America is amazing," said Paxton.

"It's a great fit, WSU and Hearts in Motion," said Wright. "Students changing the world in a positive way—that says it all!"

Paxton is a board certified surgeon and a diplomat of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He practiced general dentistry with the United States Air Force and completed a four-year oral and maxillofacial surgery residency at Travis Air Force Base in northern California, where he remained on the teaching staff before relocating to Spokane and opening his surgery practice.

Wright is chairman and CEO of Seattle Hospitality Services, an organization that specializes in meeting, program, and event planning and delivery.