Tomorrow, a group of 18 nursing students and three nursing faculty will fly to the Dominican Republic, a small Caribbean nation, for a week of serving rural, impoverished Dominicans through community nursing. This trip will mark the Nursing program’s third-consecutive trek. (Check out details about the first time the group traveled, in 2014.)

In preparation for this year’s trip, the faculty and students are limiting their amount of personal items to reserve the space in their check-in suitcases to each transport about 50 pounds of medical supplies, from vitamins and pill bottles to ointments and bandages. The goal? To bring a total of 1,000 pounds of supplies to those who need it. All  supplies were donated by area hospitals, pharmacies, and family and friends.

Nursing student Emmy Bentley led her peers in fundraising and securing supplies for the trip.

Nursing student Emmy Bentley at a “supplies-packing party” last month.

“My family was very supportive, from donating cash to responding to wish lists I set up on Amazon.com,” Emmy says. “I gathered supplies valued at about $3,000.”

When the current delegation returns on Nov. 12, a group of Ivy Tech Northeast nursing alumni—many of whom made this same journey as a student in previous years—will fly to the Dominican Republic with a similar community nursing objective.