By Virginia Scholtz
Northside News
The date: Feb. 8, 2025. The place: Chet’s Auto Care at the corner of Aberg Avenue and Everett Street. The scene: agile teens, bearded old men, women in puffer jackets and sneakers, guys in fleece and sweats (about 50 in all) lift, push and line up at the open end of a Dole company semi.
It’s the start of a long journey from Madison’s Northside to Honduras. In the ongoing tradition of lending a hand to our Central American neighbors.
Chet Hermanson is the transportation coordinator of this endeavor. Throughout the year, he gathers donations of medical and school supplies that accompany him to La Ceiba, Honduras, where a team of doctors, nurses and other folk of good will spend about two weeks caring for the needs of area residents, many of them farm laborers.
Medical personnel — including 23 experienced physicians and residents, 2 anesthesiologists, several nurses, support staff and others — made the trip. Volunteers range in age from late teens to retirees. They donated their time and the expense of travel, too. The major areas of this annual service-learning trip are joint care, vascular surgery, and ear, nose and throat care.
In addition to the crew of Chet’s Auto Care, now owned and operated by Eric Hermansen, volunteers from the Northside and the north suburbs were there en masse. A team of high schoolers from DeForest moved beds and boxes. The Rotary Club of Waunakee manned the wheelchair and walker line-up.
Truck driver Rodney Simmons calls Gulf Port, Mississippi, his home. He has been driving for Dole for quite a while. This was his fourth year driving the truck for the Honduras project. He arrived in Madison by way of Illinois, where he delivered a load of bananas from Honduras. Now he drives medical and school supplies (including bags of soccer balls, basket balls and frisbees) back to the Gulf of Mexico and onto a banana boat bound for Honduras. Although February can deliver some icy driving conditions in northern states, Rodney was confident his heavily loaded truck would make it through all right.
Through the Outreach Program of Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation (HHPF), Dr. Michael McDonald has traveled to Honduras as leader of a medical team for several years. He estimated that about 50 surgeries would be performed to treat conditions of the ears, nose or throat. Probably the most unusual problem he has seen was removal of a growth on the pituitary gland of the tallest man in Honduras. The program of HHPF to Honduras and Mexico began in 1969. They sponsor annual service-learning trips.
This year the truck of donations was full to overflowing. Alexandra Weeden kept a detailed inventory of it all. Everything was inspected and accounted for at the Honduran border. In addition to donated time and equipment, the project required quite a bit of money. Julie Olson, RN, MS, is the treasurer for HHPF. She said it takes nearly $5,000 to cover the cost of transportation and customs. The Hermanson properties have quite a bit of storage space, so donations are accepted year-round.
It takes about a month for the transport, customs and inspections to deliver the goods. Chet and the HHPF team are scheduled to arrive in late March to share fellowship and provide improved health and pain relief to some of the many friends Chet has made over the years.
