You are a person who has chosen to develop medical skills and employ them where people are suffering. You have worked with the poor in Tanzania and North Carolina, with survivors of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, and with the homeless in Duluth. Yet perhaps nothing so clearly reveals the depth of your heart energy as your connection to the people of Haiiti. You have been there multiple times to bring aid and assistance, you have lived with the Haitian people as they live, sometimes sleeping on a corn husk mattress and making do on one meal a day and limited clean water, and you have developed a deep warm place in your heart for these dignified people. We wish you the very best as you prepare to return yet again to help the survivors of the earthquake.
In our society, a person with your intelligence and ability could arrange a life of comfort and rewards. That is not your path. You are more fulfilled connecting with the poor and helpless than the rich and powerful. You find your nourishment from love and service, not personal reward. These are the qualities that Sullivan Ballou personified and for which he readily gave his life. This is the consciousness that will remake the world. You are the kind of person and physician who exemplifies what is needed in professions that have lost sight of their primary function of wise service to others.
It has been a pleasure to learn about you and your work. We hope this award will in some small way let you know that there are many of us who support and value what we are doing. You are a model and an inspiration for us.
Congratulations!
Elissa and Bruce Peterson, Founding Members