Thursday, February 9, 2017
Dodging, Diving, and Dipping; LUCOM student-doctors raise funds through friendly competition
Thu, 09 Feb 2017Asa Keimig | LUCOM Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator
Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) – Medical Outreach Interest Group (MOIG) hosted a dodgeball tournament fundraiser last month at the Lahaye Multipurpose Center.
The fundraiser was held to raise proceeds for Watts of Love with the goal of supporting the purchase of solar powered lights for a village in Guatemala.
The dodgeball tournament was an event that anyone could participate in, allowing Liberty undergraduate and graduate schools, residential and online, to compete and rally together for a great cause. The double-elimination style tournament featured 14 different teams that consisted of LUCOM student-doctors, Lynchburg’s One Community Church, and Liberty undergraduates.
The fundraiser brought together both LUCOM and the Lynchburg community with the common goal of making a difference in the lives of others. LUCOM-MOIG hoped to bring awareness of the need for lights in Guatemalan villages while allowing people to come together and work towards meeting that need in a fun way which allowed anyone and everyone to participate.
The Recessors (student-doctors Josiah Greer, Matt Marstin, Mike Goble, Angie Tseng, Hillary Baker, Ryan Spiering, and Emily Rawlings) cruised to the final game on a 4-0 win streak where they met Rotated Left (student-doctors Chad Pitcher, Logan Perkins, Derek Helsley, and Josh Reitz, along with invited guests Elder Kropushek and Elder Baggett) who faced a difficult and tiring quest to the championship after they suffered their first loss early on in the tournament. The Recessors, who were well rested, used speed and energy to defeat Rotated Left in the end lasting less than 60 seconds. The Recessors were crowned Dodgeball Champions.
LUCOM-MOIG raised over $600 that will be given directly to Watts of Love with the goal of bringing solar lights to those living in a small village in Guatemala. “As medical students we can get fixated on people’s medical needs and at LUCOM we are taught to look at a person as a whole,” said student-doctor Rachel Tanas, OMS-II. “Learning more about Watts of Love challenges us to think about other needs and factors that influence peoples’ health.”
Tanas organized the dodgeball tournament after traveling to Guatemala this past summer where she saw a lot of patients with chronic illnesses such as Diabetes and hypertension that need life-long medications for treatment.
“Watts of Love believes that ‘Light is the fastest way out of poverty because it allows people to be productive after sunset,’ and it also eliminates the need for other expensive sources of light like candles or Kerosene,” Tanas added.
Tanas knows that by providing these lights, the Guatemalan people are given a tool that empowers them to get out of the circle of poverty and in doing so, they can provide for their family’s basic needs like food and even medications. Her hope in becoming a doctor is that it would somehow bring glory to God as she has realized that medicine is an incredible vessel that can be used to show people Christ’s love.