Truckload after truckload of medical supplies stream from a 44,000-square-foot warehouse north of Springfield, destined for communities in need around the globe. It’s Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach, a nonprofit which sends donated medical supplies wherever they’re needed. They’ve been around since 2002, and they have shipped more than $50 million in supplies and equipment to 87 countries, while keeping more than one million pounds of waste out of landfills each year. Mission Outreach’s handful of employees and volunteers go to great lengths to properly sort donations, ensuring that each load contains only useable, functional materials. Just one package of expired supplies can hold up an entire shipment at a customs checkpoint in another nation, for example, and a broken X-ray machine is no good to a clinic which may not even have electricity. It’s all part of the group’s commitment to their core values of “serving others with respect, care, competence and joy.” To raise money for Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach, Robert’s Seafood in Springfield is hosting a southern-style shrimp boil with live Zydeco music on Oct. 24. For more information and tickets, call 217-546-3089.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2015.
