January 2025 Mission Trip to Mexico
By: Mary L. Rammer
During the summer of 2024, Sheboygan dentist, Laura J. Rammer searched-out opportunities for her and her dental team to help an underserved population.
Dr. Rammer sent an email to Dr. Harold Gretzinger after learning about the Clinica Derksen, located in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Dr. Rammer asked Dr. Gretzinger if his staff was looking for January 2025 volunteers. She shared that Denver CO dentist, Chelsea Mayer, a fellow 2007 MUSoD graduate and two of her team members were also ready to share their time and talents.
Dr. Gretzinger gladly accepted Dr. Rammer’s outreach.
Dr. Rammer and five members including one hygienist and four assistants as well as Dr. Mayer, her hygienist and assistant traveled to Mexico in late-January 2025.
The women brought supplies to use and donate – gloves, gowns, gauze, disinfecting wipes, dental tools and extraction instruments, filling materials, toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss.
Prior to the trip, Dr. Rammer and Dr. Mayer purchased a mobile dental chair for the clinic after they learned that one of the chairs that was being used was an aluminum legged and plastic covered lawn chair.
The teams saw an estimated 55 patients during their several-day stay; they learned that the Clinica Derksen had an interest beginning. It was Langham, Saskatchewan Canada native Darryl Derksen who saw a need in 2014. Besides working as an owner at Glenmor Equipment in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan Canada, Derksen was always involved in volunteerism efforts. He had 35 years in the retail industry of Kubota farm, light construction and lawn equipment sales and service with expertise in the areas of finance, inventory control and corporate planning. When semi-retired, Darryl and his wife Glenda began calling Puerto Vallarta their winter home. With an insatiable desire to learn and help everyone around him, Darryl taught himself Spanish and became involved in a medical, dental and community facility in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of Colonia Progreso. Designed to function as a church, the center also acted as a children’s nursery, and a hosting place of English and home economic classes. It also provided medical and dental services for the surrounding residents. And when Darryl and Glenda fully-retired, they purchased a condo in Puerto Vallarta. It is said that Darryl was a guy who liked to stay busy. Darryl started teaching English as a second language and simply wanted to spend his time helping the local people that he loved. One day, while sitting poolside, he overheard a conversation. A woman was talking about the idea of building a medical and dental facility in a very poverty-stricken part of Puerto Vallarta.
Before Darryl knew it, he was running the clinic that was named ‘Health and Spirit Medical Group.’ “An idea was conceived for the creation of the clinic, but there wasn’t a plan as to how it would be accomplished,” said Derksen’s brother, Brian. “Darryl became the person who started putting together all the things he had to do in order to actually bring a concept into reality.” Darryl spent years in fundraising and building efforts in order to get the free medical and dental clinic open to those who were less fortunate. Darryl raised money through charities, enabling the purchase of equipment and he started recruiting dentists to volunteer their skills. He wasn’t able to find many local dentists so he started contacting Canadian dentists. More dentists followed after Dr. Harold Gretzinger from Ontario got involved; Dr. Gretzinger recruited dental professionals and volunteers and continues to do so, eleven years later. Darryl often told his brother Brian about the dental clinic but it wasn’t until Brian saw it, in-person, that he realized the scope of its importance. “The clinic is in a tough part of Puerto Vallarta – just a very, very poor and poverty-stricken area,” Brian said. “For Darryl, enjoying retirement was his committing a lot of time to the thriving of the clinic. I saw how proud and passionate he was about the endeavor and its success. Darryl realized that the clinic was something that really made a difference,” added Brian. Darryl and Glenda also supported a neighborhood family and one of Darryl’s greatest joys was making them part of their lives. Sadly, Darryl was just 65 years old when he passed away on June 15, 2019. It was humbling for the Derksen family when a number of people involved in the Puerto Vallarta Health and Spirit Medical Group traveled to Saskatchewan for Darryl’s funeral. Then the Derksen family was surprised when the clinic was renamed, ‘Clinica Derksen.’ “We were elated and thought that it was a perfect tribute to Darryl. We’re so proud and thrilled that his efforts were recognized. Darryl wasn’t a guy who wore his charitable efforts on his sleeve,” Brian said of his brother. “He gave a lot of himself to help others and this was a way to recognize him. We all felt warm with pride.” Sustaining the work that Darryl Derksen began is key to the clinic’s future. A charity helps to secure funds for the clinic and the Derksen family provides half of its operating costs. The level of poverty that Dr. Rammer’s and Dr. Mayer’s team encountered in the clinic’s neighborhood was eye-opening. The people that they helped lacked the basic necessities of food, clothing, and shelter.
However, all team members that traveled from Sheboygan and Denver remarked that the Puerto Vallarta patients were thankful, appreciative of their efforts and very kind.
“One patient returned after her morning appointment with freshly prepared marlin tacos, as her way of saying thank you,” said Dr. Rammer.
Years later, Darryl Derksen’s insight and philanthropic efforts coupled with caring volunteers, continue to help and improve Puerto Vallarta residents’ lives.
Dr. Rammer remarked, “There is such a satisfaction with being of service to a population in need and not expecting anything in return. The patients’ appreciation, smiles and hugs were so rewarding.”
“It makes us all want to plan our next trip to Clinica Derksen in order to help more people, glean the rewards of volunteerism and make a difference in that small community”, she added.
