Former Avon Lake Teacher Making Fourth Trip to Guatemala on ‘Glasses Ministry’

Retired Spanish teacher Pat Fellure is making her fourth volunteer trip to Guatemala March 24, just a few months after spending six days in Jacaltenango working at an eye clinic.

This time, she’s heading to the Polochic region, but her mission is the same: Give eye exams and help find and fit eyeglasses for some of the Guatemala’s poorest residents. Avon Lake residents can help.

“They have nothing,” Fellure said at a recent lecture. “They will wait half a day, very patiently, to get checked.”

In January, Fellure traveled alongside members of Bay Presbyterian Church to Jacaltenango, a poor town in Guatemala, for six days. Her group brought glasses and small toys for residents, setting up a makeshift clinic for testing men, women and children's eyes.

“I learned of the trip through my eye doctor, Tom Kelly,” Fellure said.

Kelly, who maintains a practice in Bay Village, had organized several “glasses ministry” trips, recycling unneeded eyeglasses. Fellure was invited after she retired from teaching.

Fellure, a longtime Avon Lake resident, brings a special talent: Fluent in Spanish, she helps with the Spanish-to-English translation, explaining to patients in remote villages how to read eye charts and conducts eye exams. Her first trip was in 2009, followed by trips in 2010 and two this year. Her travels have taken her to small impoverished Guatemalan towns including Inchehuex, Tzisbaj and Huitzobal.

She also distributes towels, toys and sunglasses. Sunglasses are particularly important, due to the strength of the sun in South America.

“We totally ran out of towels, toys, sunglasses and all toiletries on my Jan. 9-21 trip to Jacaltenango,” Fellure said. 

This is no vacation. Fellure’s website details the trips, extreme poverty and less-than-desirable conditions missionaries live in. Fellure, however, never complains. Many of the villages lack running water and electricity, which missionaries – housed an hour away – have access to.

“It was the experience of a lifetime,” she said of her first trip, where she learned how to give eye exams in the clinics.

She speaks highly of the residents she meets, perpetually smiling in photographs.

“They are so very grateful,” she said, noting that many of the residents have waited all year for the mission to arrive.

Photos from the trip show poor sanitary conditions, dirty clinic bathrooms and makeshift outhouses.

Missionaries learned that one problem Guatemalans experience are eyes irritated by the constant dust kicked up from dirt roads. They found clean towels dipped in boiling water were helpful in alleviating the irritation and now collect towels that can be cut up and distributed.

The upcoming trip, scheduled for March 24 – April 1, is a medical mission trip, including general consult, pediatrician, dental and eye exams. Fellure has been issued additional responsibilities and is in the process of collecting donations.

For large donations, contact Fellure at 440-933-6409. Monetary donations/checks (to buy the medicines and pay the duty on them) can be made out to Bay Presbyterian Church, 25415 Lake Rd., Westlake, OH 44140-2699 or John Knox Presbyterian Church, 25200 Lorain Road, N. Olmsted, OH 44070. Donations are tax-deductible.

The following items can be dropped off at the on Walker Road and SR 83 (in Towne Center):

• Prescription glasses and sunglasses (adult and child)
• Non-prescription sunglasses (clip-ons ok)
• Small toys, such as Matchbox cars that can fit in palm of hand
• Small stuffed animals (think Beanie Babies)
• Toothbrushes
• Travel size toiletries including toothpaste, shampoo, bars of soap, hotel-size toiletries
• Clean towels/washcloths of all shapes, colors, sizes, patterns