LLU School of Dentistry Jan. 2000, Dentalgram - Montemorelos supply donation

Montemorelos receives dental supply donation
by Clyde Roggenkamp, DDS, MS, associate professor of restorative dentistry

Dr. Meade Baldwin was the first dental missionary to be sponsored by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and he has remained committed to that cause ever since. His first mission assignment was to Seoul, Korea, in 1949. After Korea, he went into private practice in California, where he also started his own dental laboratory supply house, the largest one between San Francisco and Portland. He is retiring from private practice and liquidating his dental supply company after the loss of his wife.

Baum-supplies

Dr. Lloyd Baum takes a break after loading donated boxes of dental supplies.

Dr. Baldwin worked with James Crawford, SD'60, MPH, General Conference representative, to find a way to pick up and transport items he wished to donate for the dental missions program. The valuable dental supplies will support the dental laboratory training school and the proposed dental school at the University of Montemorelos, a Seventh-day Adventist institution in Mexico.

Another California dental school had also been notified that these supply items were available and was immediately ready to take possession of them if we could not get them within a few days.

On Wednesday, December 8, Drs. Lloyd Baum (emeritus professor of restorative dentistry) and Bill Palmer boarded a flight to Oakland, California, and arrived at 11:30 a.m. From the airport they took a shuttle bus to Napa, where Dr. Baldwin drove them to Sonoma.

Obtaining a 26-foot rental truck on such short notice wasn't easy. Bill Palmer, however, had already phoned directly from the airport and placed an order through their national headquarters office. The local truck rental manager at first told them it would take the standard several days' notice to line up a truck, but since Bill mentioned he'd already logged in the order and needed the truck right away, the manager searched more earnestly. One of their largest trucks was coming in that afternoon, and it was agreed to let them have that one. Fortunately, this truck rental agency was located only 15 - 20 miles from Meade's supply warehouse in St. Helena.

Bill and Lloyd had to load everything onto this truck by themselves. Such a huge amount of supplies required working diligently until 9:00 Wednesday night. Early Thursday morning, they packed the truck to capacity (18,000 pounds gross vehicular weight) and drove all the way to Loma Linda by 8:00 that night. On Friday, the truck was unloaded at a depository in San Bernardino.

The pallets of materials were finally unloaded at a San Bernardino storage facility. A commercial truck from Texas reloaded it and by Thursday of the next week it had been deposited in a warehouse in McAllen, Texas.

Despite the hard work and lack of sleep, Dr. Palmer was impressed with the providentially smooth handling and transporting of these materials, especially necessary considering that another institution was prepared to receive them if action had been delayed.

Among the items received are approximately 10,000 pounds of unpackaged gypsum die stone (primarily Die-Keen and Jade Stone), pumice, burs (FG and SHP), Die-Sep, and laboratory denture acrylic powder and liquid.

Dr. Baldwin is a 1944 dental graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (now University of the Pacific). Another part of his generous donation to our dental missions program was sent recently to St. Vincent's Island in the Caribbean, where a clinic, which unfortunately had burned down, is now being rebuilt.