Rotary Club of Cleveland honors MedWish/Medworks Windows on the River February 13, 2025
Each year the Rotary Club of Cleveland celebrates International Service Day by honoring an outstanding person or organization with the International Service Award. Past recipients have included leaders from the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Cultural Gardens and ClevelandPeople.com.
The 2025 award was given to MedWish Medworks, a humanitarian nonprofit dedicated to advancing health equity and environmental sustainability. They achieve this by providing essential care, redistributing surplus medical supplies, and connecting medically underserved communities with vital resources, in Northeast Ohio and around the world.
Their Vision Statement states: "To ensure usable medical surplus does not go to waste and instead is used to equip local and global healthcare and social service organizations to increase their capacity of care for a positive health impact in the communities they serve. To ensure that all patients within our community are systematically connected to the medical healthcare, healthcare support, and social safety net services they need to thrive and live healthy lives."
A large crowd of Rotarians and guests from international and civic organizations attended. Cleveland Rotary President Howard Lichtig welcomed the crowd.
Howard Lichtig
He then introduced Past President Jerry Smith who gave words on inspiration.
Jerry Smith
Then President Lichtig gave some history of the long and broad scope of Rotary International. He then introduced Julie West, chair of the International Service Committee, to present the award to MedWish CEO Britta Latz.
Britta Latz and Julie West
Rotarian Ingrida Bublys, Honorary Consul of Lithuania, read some proclamations from government leaders.
Julie West, Britta Latz and Ingrida Bublys
Then MedWish CEO Britta Latz gave her remarks and spoke about MedWish. In the middle she showed this video.
MedWish CEO Britta Latz
After her acceptance speech, President Lichtig presented Ms. Latz with a gift from the Rotary and adjourned the meeting.
Julie West, Britta Latz and Howard Lichtig
Britta Latz with MedWish team members
Here is a video of the entire meeting as described above.
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