San Francisco nurse delivers service with a smile

Evelyn Abad went on her first Rotaplast mission in 1998. A nurse, she had just retired when she headed to Argentina as part of a medical team performing surgeries for children and adults with cleft lip and cleft palate.

“When I came back to San Francisco, I stopped by the Rotaplast office and asked if they needed any help,” Abad recalls. “They said, ‘Can you start tomorrow?’” She’s now a full-time volunteer for Rotaplast, founded in 1992 as a project of her club.

“My life has been very blessed, and to give back to people without being compensated is gratifying,” says Abad, the nonprofit’s medical staff coordinator. “We do 15 missions a year, and I recruit all the medical people,” she explains. She also does site visits, traveling to hospitals a year in advance to make sure they can provide what’s needed, and to meet with local Rotarians. “I have an advantage because I’m a Rotarian and also a medical person, so instead of sending two people, Rotaplast sends me.”

Now in her 70s, Abad has completed 35 missions and isn’t interested in slowing down. “We are making such a difference in the lives of these children. Normally they are shunned or hidden from view,” she says. “The joy of being on a mission is seeing the gratefulness in their eyes.”