‘Giving Back to Those Less Fortunate’

Long Valley parishioner offers physical therapy services to Guatemalans

LONG VALLEY  People in Guatemala — both young and old — were truly grateful that they finally were able to feel real relief from their many skeletal and muscular problems that were causing pain, swelling and limited mobility in their backs, limbs and joints. Almost everyone from this desperately poor country in Central America expressed feeling blessed with renewed life and hope.

Coming to their rescue to free these Guatemalans from their physical discomfort were the healing hands of a group of physical therapy students from the University of Scranton. These young people, including Michael Balcon of Our Lady of the Moun­tain (OLM) Parish here, traveled to Guate­mala on a 10-day mission trip in January. There, they visited clinics, hospitals, houses and churches to provide free physical therapy to the poor. Sometimes, after treatment, students would hear thankful patients impart their own blessing on them in Spanish, “Avaya con Dios” [Go with God].

“At first, the people weren’t sure what we could do. With treatment, most of them felt better immediately. They were grateful,” said 25-year-old Balcon, a third-year physical therapy student at Scranton, who expects to complete his doctorate in the discipline in June. “It was rewarding to make a real difference in their lives.”

During the trip, the 15 members of the group, which included university faculty and alumni, a dentist and a speech therapist, not only worked to soothe muscles bones of patients but also exercised their most important spiritual muscles: their hearts. They talked with patients and played ball and helped to feed orphans at a nutritional clinic in the city. Both the students and the children could not help but sport wide smiles throughout the trip, said Peter Leininger, director of Scranton’s physical therapy program, who went with the group, which also staffed a part-time clinic established by a university alum.

“The students voluntarily gave up a week of their break to give care and support to the poor of Guatemala,” said Leininger, who praised the extraordinary efforts of the mission group that included Catholics and non-Catholics alike and went with the non-profit organization Hearts in Motion. “Their human touch was the most important — that they let the people know that someone is caring for them. The trip was a great, life-changing experience for our students, who love being of service to others,” he said.

The team visited places in Zapote, as well as drove up to an hour on difficult roads through the forest to remote towns to offer their physical therapy services. They brought with them many of the tools of their trade including lotion and tape, weights and resistance bands for exercises, and several treatment tables, walkers and canes.

Many patients suffered pain and stiffness in their backs, shoulders, knees and other body parts, caused by the manual labor they perform for their livelihood, such as farming. Some had weak, arthritic and inflamed joints because of the Zika virus from mosquitoes or a virus called Chikungunya. Children often suffered from clubfeet, birth defects and common injuries, Leininger said.

Team members would make a diagnosis and then start treatment, which often included manipulation of soft tissue in the back and joints to improve posture and mobilization and decrease pain. Afterward, the students showed patients proper lifting techniques to avoid further injury and how to perform simple exercises, sometimes with the resistance bands that they provided. They also referred patients for a follow-up appointment to other groups of physical therapy students from other universities, scheduled to go on a follow-up mission trip. Each team treated about 80 patients throughout the whole trip, Balcon said.

The mission trip gave Balcon an opportunity to exercise his passion for helping others through his chosen profession. He took an interest in physical therapy while receiving treatment for a sports injury, and when his younger brother, Ryan, got treatment, after a serious auto accident when he was 10. Balcon earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Scranton in 2013.

Immediately after exiting the plane in Guatemala, Balcon got a whiff of a distinct smell, caused, in part, by the garbage that residents burn in the open air. They live in extreme poverty in clay houses with little more than a kitchen, bedroom and a bathroom. They cannot drink the contaminated water. The children do not wear shoes or play sports, because they do not have any equipment. So members from one of Scranton’s sororities accompanied the physical therapy group to distribute donated soccer balls and help build a clinic and orphanage, Balcon said.

“The Guatemalans don’t have much,” said Balcon, who also saw poverty during trips with his family to the Philippines, the homeland of his parents, Dennis and May. “It [the trip to Guatemala] made me appreciate that I have been blessed — with my education, where I live and the things that I have.”

The recent mission trip also enabled Balcon to live out his Catholic faith. Growing up, he attended Mass with his parents and three brothers at OLM, where he also sang in the children’s choir and was an altar server, and where he continues to attend Mass. In fact, OLM donated $500 of the $1,200 he needed to raise for his trip’s dining, living and transportation expenses. Family and friends donated the rest through a fund-raising website, GoFundMe, he said.

“As an active Catholic, I believe in giving back to those less fortunate,” said Balcon, who recently started his third physical therapy rotation. “This has been perfect timing. I have the time to do this before I start working. I had to do it,” he said.