Concerned Citizen

Amber Epling: Nurse, Teacher and Volunteer

By James Hall and Britany Toolson

For this project the first person I thought was my aunt, Amber, and when I told James about her, I agreed that she would be a great subject. 

She has always been an inspiration to me of living a selfless life. She chose a profession that is all about helping out their community, the medical field. She teaches which is another thing that is very community building. She also helps the world community by going on a trip or two a year to different third world countries to repair cleft lips and palates. I could tell that Britany really loved her aunt, and that in addition to her community her aunt had added to the strong foundation of Britany’s life.  

 Cleft lips and palates are not something we see in first world countries often because they are fixed shortly after birth. In other countries however, they are often not able to be fixed and can cause a lot of physical and emotional trauma. She does these trips completely voluntary, donating her time and paying her way. 

Scheduling could of proven difficult because Amber lived several hours away. However, Britany contacted her aunt right after class and it was fate. She was coming up that week to do some shopping with her nephew. Obviously we couldn’t follow her to another country and watch her do surgeries, but we got photos from previous trips she has taken. There were so many good photos and instead of just scanning the photos we decided to take inspiration from the Mormon Channel’s “His Grace” video series and lay the photo’s out. We thought it would create a more “quiet reflective homely feel”. 

Filming was the easiest part; because Amber has done so much we got a lot of footage of her talking. There was a lot of good stuff and we struggled with deciding what to cut. One thing that ended up on the cutting room floor we liked was about different sizes of community and communities helping communities. She talked about how her local community will donate items for her to take which helps the larger world community. While editing the footage, I noticed how much Amber said “we” instead of “I” either in relation as a teacher or as a part of Operation Smile. That to me said a lot about her character, that she didn’t want to take all of the credit.

Another interesting thing that Amber touched upon was the treatment of people with cleft lips and palates within their community. She tells about how they are teased, and harassed. They struggle to find a place within their own community because they talk funny. In the reading Arelene Goldbard says: “But no individual has the power to instantly reverse decades-old policy trends…” Though Amber is helping these individuals the bigger issue is that within this community (as well as probably all other communities) is the trend or pattern of discrimination. It is sad that these individuals are so unaccepted within there own society that they have to solicit help from other communities to alter their appearance enough in order to fit in with their own community.  Not to mention that most of them are kids. But in the article it also said: “The antidote to despair is to remember the world to come.” Amber exemplifies this attitude, by serving and serving a lot. She describes it as an addiction, but I believe it is a burning hope. And she is a key component in that world to come. By giving of herself abroad she fuels the fire in the many countries she has visited as well as her community at home.