Dr. Donn Chatham Giving Back
While we run a business, we also believe it is important to try to help others apart from our practice. This might involve local charities and programs designed for area residents or it might expand to overseas medical missionary programs.
Each Christmas for the past 20 years we began asking members of the Floyd county (IN) medical staff to join us in supporting a local charity which distributes clothing and toys to underprivileged children at Christmas through Hope Southern Indiana. Other Indiana and Kentucky charities also offer worthy services such as Mercy medical clinic in Shelbyville, KY (site of the family medical practice of Dr Chatham’s father for many years) and programs offered by Mt St Francis (IN) friary and sanctuary and others.
On the overseas front, Dr Chatham has traveled to several foreign countries as a medical volunteer including Guatemala (Amigos de las Americas) and Ecuador.(Save the Children). Following the end of the Balkan wars, he travelled to Croatia on two missions with a team with the American Academy of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery (Face to Face) to offer surgical services. Later he traveled with a group of southern Indiana Christian volunteers to Borneo, Indonesia where the team hiked into remote villages accessible only by mountain and river trails.
In 2011 while Dr Chatham was president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive surgery he proposed a new program designed to offer pro bono surgeries to members of the military armed forces who had sustained facial injuries as a result of being deployed in combat service if they were unable to obtain medical help through traditional governmental programs. “Face to Face: Faces of Honor” today has about 200 volunteer surgeons in the United States. Please click HERE to link to the web site.
He also participates in the AAFPRS pro bono program “Face to Face: Domestic Violence” which offers reconstructive surgeries to victims of domestic violence.
