The RCAA ARC and Peace Committee is pleased to announce that the 2024 Robert S Northrup Humanitarian Award will be presented at the RCAA meeting on May 8, 2024. The Selection Committee had very qualified nominees from all over the District. The nominee chosen by the Selection Committee is Robert H Gilman, MD DMD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Plastic Surgery, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan. His nomination was submitted by Greg Stejskal and Bev Seiford.In 1998, Dr. Gilman, having expressed an interest in doing mission work, was asked to join a medical mission to Cartagena, Colombia. The following year he returned as the mission leader and has continued as team leader. Last month, the team completed its 24th mission and conducted 60 surgeries. Those 24 missions have resulted in over 1,300 children receiving life-changing treatments.
Dr. Gilman's Team cares for a wide variety of congenital, traumatic and disease related pediatric deformities. The most common problem they treat is cleft lip and palate, a problem that often requires multiple operations over many years. That their mission returns to the same place year after year allows Bob and his Team to follow these patients through their whole course of treatment. They also provide surgical correction of hand deformities and burn deformities. (These facial deformities if untreated often lead to lifetime ostracization of the individual so treatment is truly life transforming.)
Dr. Gilman and his Team are blessed with great Colombian Rotarian partners who have seen to their local logistical needs including food, transportation, and lodging. Bob was made an Honorary Member of the Cartagena Caribe Club and had the honor of receiving a Proclamation and the Medal of Honor of the city of Cartagena, Colombia; the highest civilian honor the city bestows, from the Mayor of the City. When we asked Bob why he does this work, he said, “We live in a world of need. Ours is only a relatively small contribution to making the world a better place; but when you put many small contributions together you can indeed change the world”.
Please join us on May 8 at the Rotary Club Meeting for the Award Presentation and Dr. Gilman will share highlights of his important work.