MEET CATHY AND ELENA

 

Cathy & Elena are a mother-daughter team going on their first, ever medical mission trip. Both are very excited and a bit apprehensive.

 

Elena is a junior at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School (DSHA), where she runs both Track and Cross Country. She is the youngest of five children. She has served others by tutoring children at St. Rose in Milwaukee for the last three years and serves at Mass by distributing the Holy Eucharist at St. Dominic’s Catholic Parish. Elena has been involved in several walk/runs for various charities, as well. Her course load at DSHA has a heavy emphasis on the Sciences and Elena is contemplating a career in Medicine.

 

Cathy has 12 years experience as a Physician Assistant (PA) in Family Medicine. She also volunteers as a PA at the St. Joseph’s Medical Clinic, serving the poor of the Waukesha area. She is the mother of five and has been married to Tom for 29 years this June! Cathy is passionate about patient care and views it a privilege to serve others in this capacity. She is very excited to use her skills and compassion for the people she will be treating in Peru. “In this year of Mercy, as declared by Pope Francis, there couldn’t be a more fitting time to be part of such an important outreach to our less fortunate brothers and sisters and I am delighted to share this experience with my daughter.”

MEET LINDSEY

 

Lindsey is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota Crookston, and is on the women's basketball team. She has a double major in health science and biology, and is plan on either becoming a doctor or physician assistant someday. She is currently becoming a certified nursing assistant through Waukesha County Technical College, and took all four years of high school Spanish.

 

Lindsey said, "I believe this mission trip will provide a new perspective on diversity and faith. I am very excited to work with a team to help the quality of life of the people living in Peru. I also look forward to observing and assisting the doctors on this trip, and to gain a new understanding of the culture of Peru."

MEET EMILY

Emily is the granddaughter of Catherine. She is fifteen years old and an only child, She grew up in Milwaukee Wisconsin and then moved to West Bend in 2009. She is in the Slinger School District and attending Slinger High School. As for traveling, this is her first time to Peru or out of the county, but she would like to travel and try new things. She loves to play sports, especially basketball and track, and doing shot put and discus. 

 

Emily said, "I am really excited to be joining this amazing mission while doing great things for other people. I have taken two years of Spanish and am very excited to experiment in speaking the language in Peru." 

 

 

MEET MIRANDA

Miranda is currently a sophomore at Kettle Moraine's charter school KM Global School of Leadership and Innovation. She is a member of the Tri-M Honor Society, the KM Varsity Dance Team and an active member of the Girl Scouts as an Ambassador.  She enjoys volunteering with St. Paul's Church, Senior Interfaith and the Caring Place in Waukesha.

This will be Miranda's second trip to Peru. Her last trip inspired her Gold Award project with the Girl Scouts.  During our mission, she will lead training and educational classes over the use of our water purifying systems to be used by families in Paita. She will train members of the community to help build, set up, trouble shoot and clean the systems so they can continue to train families on their use once we are gone and more filters are donated. Our mission will be taking 50 systems to help families have access to healthy water and avoid illnesses common in Paita due to contaminated drinking water.

MEET LISA

Lisa is a science instructor for Waukesha County Technical College.  She has taught Anatomy & Physiology full-time for the past eight years.  Prior to teaching, she owned and operated her own chiropractic clinic where she treated a wide variety of musculoskeletal disorders for 18 years.  Lisa has a bachelor’s degree in human biology and a doctor of chiropractic degree from the National University of Life Sciences in Lombard, Illinois. 

 Lisa was born and raised in Wisconsin.  This is her second medical mission trip.  Two years ago, she went to the mountains of Guatemala to provide health care to the residents of the Mayan villages.

 Lisa moved to Delafield in 2001 with her husband and four children.  She and her husband Jeff have been married for 25 years.  Their two older children are currently in college and their two younger children will both be in high school next year.

MEET CATHERINE

 

Catherine is from Watertown, WI and is a friend of Nancy Reinbold, a parishioner of St. Paul's.  She and Nancy met through Casa Maria Catholic Worker Shelter in Milwaukee, where St. Paul parish dotes grocery shopping gift cards monthly. Catherine has been a CW volunteer for five years, which she chose to do after her husband's death. She's blessed with four sons, three of whom are married and have provided five delightful grandchildren. The other son is a priest in diocese of Sioux Falls, SD.

 

Her careers have been: an RN, psychotherapist, AODA counselor and teacher. Sometime in the middle of that, her family chose to join Papal Volunteers to Latin America. They spent three years in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She thought she'd never travel anywhere but there, as they were so drawn to spend all their vacations with friends in Aguascalientes. But they did wean themselves, eventually.

She was honored to join up with St. Paul’s mission group two years ago and now here she goes again. This time her granddaughter, Emily, will join her to practice her Spanish and tasks Catherine will be sure to assign her.

 

She's so grateful to St Paul parishioners for organizing this mission trip. Catherine said, "It’s a great experience and we love the religious sisters in Paita, Peru. I’m looking forward to working with our former awesome team members and to meeting some new ones. Pray for us."

MEET OLIVIA

Meet Olivia. She's currently a senior at California Baptist University and a three year player for their women’s basketball team. She is a Health Science major looking to become a physician assistant in the near future. She's a certified nursing assistant at Shorehaven’s Rehabilitation Center.

She's gone on previous medical mission trips and is looking looking forward to helping the underserved in Peru! She's most excited to work with other health care professionals and learn about how they can help improve quality of life in Peru. She's also looking for to applying the six years of Spanish that she took in high school!

MEET LINDA

Linda is new to the team going to Peru. This will be her first mission trip, and she is excited and a little fearful.  She is a retired RN with a BSN from Marquette University.  She has done telephone triage for a group of internists; she was employed by the Milwaukee Red Cross Homeless Outreach Nursing Center and worked with mentally ill clients in the homeless shelters including the Rescue Mission and Salvation Army, and on the streets and under the bridges.  This was her “dream job”, but after moving she became certified in parish nursing and worked for ProHealth for almost 9 years in three different churches and in the community at a meal site, the Hope Center (called CCWC then), and a childcare for children of W-2 moms, run by the Hope Center.

Linda has belonged to St. Paul Parish for 18 years and loves the parish and being involved in various ministries.  She is married for almost 46 years to the same man(!), Roger, and has 2 adult daughters, a son-in-law, and 2 precious grandchildren.  She is originally from Green Bay and is a huge Packer fan.  She likes to play the piano and organ at home and sing in the church choirs.  She also enjoys attending Marquette University basketball games, walking, reading, and going to the family cottage up north for swimming and boating. She requests prayers.  

MEET DEB

Deb met her husband Michael while working at AT&T. She retired in 1992, after 20 years of service, to become a stay-at-home mom. While raising their two children, she was able to enjoyed doing a variety of volunteer work in her community. She was an area leader for the Channel 10 (PBS) auction for many years, was a Big Sister for several young girls in Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Milwaukee, and transported seniors and adults with disabilities though the Interfaith Caregiving Network.   

Deb and Michael became involved at St. Paul Parish in 1992 after hearing that the parish would be twinning with a parish in Guatemala, in partnership with the School Sisters of St. Francis (SSSF).  She was welcomed by  the pastoral associate, Len Grassmann, who had invited her to join them in this new venture. That was the beginning of a wonderful friendship with Len, the SSSF and St. Paul Parish. She and her husband have been members at St. Paul's for 22 years. She has lead several trips to Guatemala. Deb is the chairperson of the St. Clare School Outreach Team at St. Paul Parish. She's very excited about her fourth trip to Peru.

MEET CHARLIE

 

Miranda "Charlie" Spindt has been a practicing Physician Assistant in Family Practice and Urgent Care for over twenty years. Her husband Marc and she will be celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary this year and have two great kids, Miranda, 16 and Nicolas, 12.

Miranda said, "Service to others is a passion that we share as a family and a lesson we hope to have instilled in our kids. We are blessed to be a part of a church that is so active in our community both locally and internationally."

This will be her second trip as the medical mission coordinator for the Peru outreach ministry. Charlie and Marc also serve as Eucharistic Ministers, Religious Education Youth Group Leaders and Pre-marriage FOCCUS facilitators. Miranda is also a volunteer medical provider with the St. Joseph's Medical Clinic in Waukesha which serves the homeless and the uninsured in need of medical services.

MEET DR. BOB

Dr. Bob is new to the Peru outreach team at St. Paul Parish. He is a retired Family Practice doctor from Menomonee Falls and has practiced for more than 40 years. He retired from active practice the summer of 2015 and has been very busy since then volunteering at local community medical clinics. In the past, he has participated in several mission trips to Honduras. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, jogging and studying Spanish. He is a proud grandpa.

He has visited Peru twice as a tourist and is looking forward to partaking in this medical mission trip at St. Clare School in Paita, Peru.