In September 2008 the Hipodromo Rotary Club of Tijuana presented Amigos de los Californios with a recognition plaque for the years of service the organization has given to the people of Baja California.



Maria Josefa "Siqui" Romero and Maria Lopez Castillo, with new dental equipment at the Deborah Wayne Clinic. In 2008 Roger Kingston, the Amigos' Dental Director, arranged for a grant from the Pierre Fauchard Foundation to purchase two portable dental units and chairs for the Amigos. The units have been delivered to the Deborah Wayne Clinic in San Igancio and used for the first time by a volunteer group from La Paz. The Flying Doctors plan to use the equipment, and the Amigos will use the units in San Francisco de la Sierra and Santa Martha each spring. A small contingent of Amigos volunteers is planning a mini dental clinic at the Deborah Wayne Clinic in San Ignacio for November, 2009.



Amigos occasionally assists with special cases. With logistical support from Amigos' staff, Ivan Arce had surgery on both feet at the Shriners' Hospital in Los Angeles. Before the surgery, he could hardly walk. Now he is an active teenager who loves to ride his bike, play soccer, and dance. Here Ivan is being fitted for new leg braces by Roger Weber at a follow-up Shriners' clinic in Tijuana.



Martha Arce has had severe hearing loss since birth and has worn hearing aids most of her childhood. Audiologist, Dr. Judy Horning, a long time Amigos sponsor, takes impressions of Martha's ears for new hearing aids after the old pair had been destroyed by a mischievous mouse. She is at the top of her class in school now and can read and write proficiently.



Amigos team members, Lee Foerster and John Hayes loading van for the Clinic trip. The van was donated to the Amigos by the Leave a Little Room Foundation.



The road to Santa Martha leaves the peninsular highway at Bonfil about 12 miles east of San Ignacio. Conditions vary from year to year. It takes an hour or more to reach the community from the highway.



The girls at the boarding school in Santa Martha perform a dance welcoming the Amigos team to the Clinic.



Sue Evarts' field kitchen is cleaned up after the lunch meal in Santa Martha and ready for dinner preparation. Sue and her crew serve over 700 meals to team members and frequent visitors during the two week Clinic.



Doctors Ray and Lorna Thomas at work. The dental clinic in San Francisco de la Sierra is held in a small tourist hotel that the community reserves for the Amigos during the clinic week.



Dental care for the children in the schools is a priority. After 13 years of annual treatment and oral hygiene education the children in Santa Martha and San Francisco de la Sierra have good dental health.



Dr. Enrique Collada consults with a patient's mother during an exam of her daughter. Dr. Collada has a family practice clinic in Tijuana.



Dental technician, Sergio Ruelas, with his patient after making a denture. Patients who need dentures are encouraged to come to the Clinic early in the week to see the dentists for an exam and impressions . Sergio makes the dentures, and then the patients return for fitting at the end of the week. He made 30 dentures at the last Clinic. Sergio has dental lab business in Mexicali.



School children at the boarding school in Santa Martha saying good-by to Dr Danny Garrido, Sergio Ruelas, Sue Heller, Sue Evarts and Dr. Beverly Martinsons. Until next year!