Story By Ben Nicolls
Photo by Lori Barmore
Lori Barmore had what’s typically
known as a normal life—nice
house in Chandler, good job,
great family—but she was missing
something. Inspiration.
So she quit her job and went after
a career she’d wanted to do her entire
life, nursing, to be there for those in
need.
After 10 years of being a Level 1
ICU/trauma nurse, however, Barmore
wanted to reach out to those who
needed her more. Earlier this year she
went on a mission trip to Haiti with
friend and coworker Dawn Mougel.
It was on this venture that she and
Mougel realized they needed to find a
better way to get themselves and others
into areas like this where they could
help the most.
Barmore began to look into
organizations such as Doctors Without
Borders, but it would still cost her too
much to be able to go on missions. So
she and Mougel co-founded Inspire
2 Heal, a non-profit whose main goal
is making something as inspirational
as helping the less fortunate more
obtainable for those wanting to help.
For any normal person wanting to
get up and help others, the expense
can be prohibitive. A plane ticket
alone could cost upwards of $1,000.
Expenses like that compound when
the time needed away from work is
factored in.
Volunteers still need to put forth
some of their own finances, about
$500, but Inspire 2 Heal is meant to
cover the rest, leaving the bill a fourth
of what it could be.
Everything about Inspire 2 Heal is,
to put it simply, inspiring.
Because it is such a new
organization a lot of the work is done
out of Barmore’s home and after work.
“(Inspire 2 Heal’s) phone is my cell
phone,”she remarked proudly.
When Barmore started a nonprofit,
she meant the non-profit part.
Running the organization out of her
home allows Inspire 2 Heal to put
all donations toward sending people
where they are needed. All the work
is done by people who want to help
and expect no compensation. She
already has her group’s first two
missions planned, one to Guatemala
in October, where she has been once
before, another to Haiti in January,
where she first hatched the idea for the
organization. The group for Guatemala
is a mix of 15 doctors and nurses who
will perform various surgeries that here
would be classified as routine but there
are life altering.
On a previous mission Barmore
met Frankie, who was born with
hydrocephalus, or fluid on his brain.
Here he would have had this treated,
but because he went without treatment
until he was 3 there really isn’t much
that can be done, Barmore says.
It is Inspire 2 Heal’s goal to connect
people like Frankie, who need help,
and people like Barmore, who wants so
badly to give it.
