You never know where you might run into a TCU alum — although Bolivia probably wouldn’t be your first guess. But for Lucy VanBelois ’80 and Alesia Wiggs ’87, Bolivia is a country where miracles happen. It didn’t surprise them to find a fellow Frog there at all.

For two weeks in April 2005, Wiggs and VanBelois were part of a team of surgical volunteers with Operation Smile. Although the medical mission has been thrust into the spotlight recently thanks to singer Jessica Simpson, Operation Smile has provided free reconstructive surgery to 98,000 children and young adults since 1982. The two-week missions take place in 30 countries 25 times per year, sending Western medical teams to treat children and young adults suffering from facial deformities.

The Bolivia mission was Wiggs’ second stint; it was VanBelois’ 26th trip in the past nine years. Unknown to each other, the two Frog nurses were on the same ward–and both wearing purple scrubs–when they discovered that they had both attended TCU.

VanBelois currently serves as chairman of the council that sets nursing policies for the organization. During the April 2005 mission, she was clinical coordinator, responsible for all clinical areas: screening and scheduling the patients for surgery as well as ensuring that the operating room, recovery, pre and post op were set up and ready to go. On top of that, she also oriented another nurse to the position.

During Wiggs and VanBelois’ stay, 147 children, whose problems ranged from cleft palates and cleft lips to tumors and burns, underwent life-changing surgery. Recently returned from a June operation in Russia, VanBelois says that each mission is hugely rewarding. But the Bolivia trip with Wiggs will stand out for her “as a wonderful experience of sharing the nursing skills we both learned at TCU.”