Feb. 20, 2017

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A spur-of-the-moment conversation turned into a special opportunity to serve for Gamecock beach volleyball’s Katie Zimmerman. In the months leading up to her final season with the team, the second-year standout traveled to Nicaragua for eight days on a volunteer mission with One World Health.

The trip was part of the organization’s Mobile Medical Unit program, which sends volunteers out to local villages to help the villagers with on-site, pop-up clinics.

Zimmerman’s husband, Parker, heard about the opportunity just two days before the application deadline in October, and the couple jumped at the chance to serve. They were part of a larger group that consisted mostly of professional doctors and medical students, with Parker falling into the latter, but for someone like Katie who didn’t have career aspirations in the medical field, she said she was “just there to love.”

“I was hesitant at first, but they are so happy just to be there and get treated,” Zimmerman said. “I was a giant to these people, so there were kids looking at me like `who is this giant blonde white girl?’ I got a few weird looks and they were a little intimidated at first. Once I got down on the kids’ level, though, I think my personality came through the difference in language and they got that I was here to help them.”

There were plenty of opportunities to help, as the volunteers served over 600 people over five days of clinics from Dec. 10-18, with days typically running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Katie ran the heights and weights station, giving her a chance to connect with patients young and old, despite the language barrier.

Zimmerman recounted one of her favorite memories from the trip, when she sat down to play a game with some children waiting to be seen by a doctor.

“I wasn’t giving people medicine, but just to be able to do something to make these people happy was fun,” Katie said. “I didn’t have to speak Spanish to them, you could just tell that they were thankful, and that felt good.”

For a trip that was decided on in the eleventh hour, Katie and Parker hope that they will have more chances to spread good will.

“We’ve always wanted to do something like this, but we’ve never really had the opportunity to,” Zimmerman said. “This was on a whim, but we’ve always wanted to do missions and will hopefully continue to do them.”