‘My belief is that we weren’t put on this earth just to satisfy our own needs’

Dick Childs, a physical plant engineer at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, works with metal and machinery, but, at the hospital, he’s known as the man with the soft heart for kids. A former Disney employee, he paints cartoon figures for children at the hospital and travels to the most remote areas of Mexico to take medical supplies and clothing to children untouched by civilization. He was interviewed by Times Staff writer G. Jeanette Avent. (Photo courtesy of Kaiser.)

I’ve been interested in helping kids ever since I can remember. I worked at Disneyland for about 13 years, running and maintaining the steam locomotives and Mark Twain steamboat. I also got into cartooning there. I had always been interested in drawing, and at Disney I was surrounded by it.

I got started drawing for children because my daughter, who was in the second grade at the time had a friend who was diagnosed with cancer. I started drawing Disney figures for her and other children with the approval of the Disney owners. Since I’ve been at Kaiser Permanente, I’ve been drawing and painting pictures of Minnie and Mickey Mouse for children of all ages.

When I moved back to San Diego in 1981 to work at Kaiser, I began traveling to Mexico more and more. I’ve been traveling in Mexico for more than 30 years, so I’m pretty familiar with the country. I grew up in Valley Center in the Escondido area on a horse and cattle ranch, and the Indians and Mexicans were always in this part of the country or passing through. I just grew up with them.

I’ve been down to the rain forests near the Mexican border with Guatemala, and I hope to be going back after the rainy season is over in September. I have a large supply of medical equipment to take down there. People know that I do this, so different companies who make sutures and needles give me supplies.

I’ve always been interested in the primitive peoples and their history. I go to a little village near San Cristobal de las Casas. A major problem is getting the supplies in. The village is up over 7,000 feet above sea level in the jungle. I’ll fly to Mexico City, spend another day of travel to get to the mountains and San Cristobal, and then walk several days.

But you don’t have to go far into Mexico to find needy children. One of the cases I worked with was a 16-year-old girl, Rafa Carlos from Tijuana. She was burned over 65% of her body with third-degree burns. I started visiting Rafa, and I wound up living there by her bedside. When she was discharged from the hospital, she went home, and that was going to be it. Her family didn’t know anything further could be done, but I talked to her about reconstructive work, and we brought her over the border for an exam.

One of the Kaiser doctors volunteered time to help her and that began a long year of coming across the border a minimum of two times a week. She was in surgery for about five hours. She was really a terrible sight to look at. She didn’t go outside, wouldn’t see anyone and just closed herself away. But now she’s doing quite well. Her family has a little grocery store, and Rafa has taken over the store.

A lot of times I don’t have a contact with anyone in the more remote areas. Maybe I’ve heard about it or read about it. I just go, often by myself. I have enough Spanish to get in trouble and enough where they laugh at me. But most of the primitives don’t speak any Spanish at all; they have their own language. For many years, I kept waiting for the language barrier to be a problem, but I think eventually I found out that communication has nothing really to do with language. We can draw pictures in the dirt, laugh together. If all else fails, I get taken by the hand or take them by the hand. It’s never ever been a problem.

Why do I do it all? My belief is that we weren’t put on this earth just to satisfy our own needs or our own goals. I’ve met a lot of beautiful, beautiful people. They welcome me into their lands. They invite me back. I just enjoy it.