Todd G. Higdon Neosho Daily News Thu Jan 29, 2009, 05:03 PM

CST Neosho, Mo. - The Neosho Rotary Club has received two ambulances from Freeman Neosho Hospital today to be used in a region of Mexico. The process all began last March when Neosho Rotary Club President Warren Langland had a conversation with an acquaintance in Springfield, who had just returned from San Blas, Mexico, a small fishing village of about 12,000 people on the Pacific Coast of Mexico located between Puerto Vallarta and Matzalan.

The community is 96 miles north of Puerto Vallarta and takes three hours of travel time. “He was telling me how poor the community was and every time he visited he would take personal hygiene supplies, as well as medical supplies that he was able to obtain from hospitals in the Springfield area,” Langland said during a press conference this morning at Neosho Concrete. “I spoke of my involvement in Rotary Club and the possibility of getting medical supplies through our Rotary District 6110, Medical Supplies Network, Inc. This is a worldwide humanitarian aid project and we are able to ship medical supplies throughout the world. I said he should get me a list of equipment and the club would see how they could help.”

Within a couple of weeks Langland received the list. “At the end of the list there were two ambulances, preferably four-wheel drive,” said Langland. “Our club went to work on the list and thought the ability to obtain two ambulances was pretty impossible. On my way to the post office a few days later, I noticed two, apparently surplussed, ambulances parked in the parking lot of Freeman Hospital. I spoke with Joe Yust, also a Rotarian, and asked him what he was going to do with those ambulances. I suggested he should donate them to Rotary and we would ship them to the community of San Blas, which was in desperate need of two ambulances. And here we are today.”
 
Presenting the keys to the two ambulances to Langland was Freeman Neosho Chief Executive Officer Daxton Holcomb. “Freeman Neosho Hospital is a not-for-profit hospital, that means that we give back to our community, we invest in our community, our profits does not go back to pay shareholders or out-of-state corporate offices,” said Holcomb. “We provide health care services to our communities and our neighbors. Today, we have an opportunity to donate some of our resources to a very giving and charitable organization right here in Neosho — The Neosho Chapter of Rotary International. Rotary helps to feel the needs of our community here at home, as well as some of our distant neighbors.” “These units couldn’t have come at a better time since the only ambulance in San Blas was involved in an auto accident and has been scrapped,” Langland said. “Our club looks at this project as a privilege to live our motto, ‘Service above Self.’ It’s not always practical to expect to do a project alone, but I feel that this generous partnership with Freeman Hospital enables our community to touch lives in another — not only to touch a life but possibly save a life.
 
Not only do we have the two ambulances but also they are outfitted with supplies and equipment. We are very grateful to Freeman Hospital of Neosho for their generosity.” Langland said the challenge now was to get the ambulances to Mexico. “We have an array of ways of getting them down there,” he said. “We can truck them down, drive them down, and even the option of military aircraft shipping them down. The next challenge is getting the Mexican government permits to get them across the border.”