MOSES LAKE  - Moses Lake residents gathered Saturday to make a difference to people around the world.

The Moses Lake Medical Team held a dinner and auction to help raise money for the group's humanitarian trips to Nigeria. The team provides medical services to people unable to afford them.

Lee and Kitty Willis have supported the medical team for several years through the Rotary Club of Moses Lake.

"I think it's a wonderful way we can help other countries who aren't as privileged as we are," said Kitty.

The couple are also friends with several of the team members, said Lee.

"When we found out they were having this function, we said, 'Of course we'll be here,'" he said.

Members of the Moses Lake Lions Club presented the medical team with a check for $1,000.

"I want to say thanks again to the Moses Lake Lions Club," said Lateef Olaniyan, one of the team's founders. "Thank you very much for your contribution ... I'd like to thank every single person for being here tonight as well."

Dr. Ifepa Sofola, a world-renowned plastic surgeon and member of the medical team, presented a check for $1,000 from his colleague, anesthesiologist Joseph Kuang, who wasn't able to attend the event.

The medical team recently partnered with the nonprofit organization New Reality International.

"We take ... medical and dental and surgical teams to countries around the world and we're so excited to join up with Moses Lake," said New Reality's Chief Operations Officer, Aliy Grant. "We are so excited about the future that we're going to be able to work further in Nigeria and hopefully even expand beyond whatever our wildest dreams could be to help other people."

Frances Irwin, a registered nurse and a member of the medical team with her husband Dr. James Irwin, thinks the medical team is a great opportunity to provide access to health care for people who otherwise wouldn't have it.

"We've saved mothers' lives who have been in trouble in labor and just real miracles with being able to save some lives," she said.

The first time the medical team brought along its plastic surgery team, they performed 27 cleft palette surgeries in two days.

Even something as simple as handing out glasses makes an impact, she said.

"People that otherwise just can't see very well at all, and you give them glasses and all of a sudden they can see for the first time," she said. "We saw people the second year that were proudly wearing the glasses we gave them a year before."