The names of the 12 people who died in the Texas A&M bonfire collapse of November 18, 1999 will forever be enshrined at the Bonfire Memorial on the A&M campus, but now their names will also adorn 12 medical clinics that student volunteers created out of old shipping containers in their honor through the BUILD program.
"Students are putting their hands on a project that will save a life," BUILD Chief Operating Officer Marshall Grey said. "That's not an overstatement or an understatement. These containers, these Texas Aggie Medical Clinics, will save lives."
Nine of the 12 medical clinics are already in use in countries where hospital access is sparse. BUILD's Chief Financial Officer Mackenzie Rogers says a single clinic can help 2,000 people every week.
"With our mobile clinic in place they do have that security and that safety to know that someone's helping them."
Hundreds of A&M students have volunteered to work on the project putting in flooring, walls, plumbing, and more.
“It’s kind of our Aggie spirit," student-athlete and volunteer Antoine Marc said. "It’s what our university is all about."
The BUILD team will dedicate the final four medical clinics on Saturday, one day after the seventeenth anniversary of the bonfire collapse. They'll then be shipped to Bolivia, Cambodia, Moldova, and the Dominican Republic.
Donations from local businesses helped make the project possible. An organization out of Houston called Medical Bridges also pitched in a hundred thousand dollars worth of medical supplies and equipment for each clinic.
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