2021 Travel Team Member Feature: Nicholas Langston

We are excited to continue our new blog series! In this series, we highlight members of our incredible 2021 Travel Team who will accompany us during Mission 2021 to Antigua, Guatemala. 

Travel Team Members generously volunteer their time, talent, and energy toward our goal: providing the gift of mobility to patients in need. From October 2nd through October 9th 2021, we will be in Antigua to accomplish that goal.

This year’s trip to Antigua will be our sixth to Guatemala, and our eleventh trip overall. We thoroughly enjoy the time we spend at Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro, our partner hospital in Antigua, which we affectionately call our home away from home. We love the staff there and truly think of them all as family. 

Let’s turn our attention to our next featured Travel Team Member, Nicholas Langston! Nick is not only a Travel Team Member for Operation Walk Pittsburgh, he also works as their program director and has a huge role in organizing Mission 2021. You may recognize him from some of the video posts on our social media. Nick has been with Operation Walk Pittsburgh for nearly four years, and this will be his third Mission with us. Nick earned his Bachelor’s and two minors from Western Illinois University, as well as a Master’s in International Development from the University of Pittsburgh. The skills he learned via higher education come in handy each year. He organizes logistics, Travel Team applications, and other essential planning tasks for Operation Walk Pittsburgh Missions. He is also thankful for the support that he receives in this role from volunteer Travel Team Leaders.

Nick is originally from Rock Island, Illinois, which is right on the Iowa border. While he enjoys living in Pittsburgh now, Nick is partial to his hometown “Quad Cities Style Pizza.” We won’t hold that against him, because he is a big fan of Mineo’s in Pittsburgh as well. Nick credits his hometown for giving him a love of the outdoors and big horizons. He had plenty of room to roam in his rural neighborhood, and a midwestern cornfield will always tug at his heartstrings. However, this love for his hometown did not sway his big dreams of travel.

When Nick joined the Peace Corps in 2010, his travel dreams came to fruition. His first destination was Rwanda, where he had a life-changing service experience in the education sector. He went on to teach English in Japan and Thailand. His favorite travel destinations were Ethiopia and Zanzibar, but Antigua, Guatemala holds a special place in his heart as well. Outside of traveling, work, and humanitarian efforts, Nick also enjoys disc golfing in Pittsburgh. He appreciates the inner city parks that Pittsburgh has to offer. He also enjoys hiking, fishing, and camping with his partner, Whitney, as well as playing the guitar.

All of our Travel Team Members work hard to meet a fundraising goal, helping to cover a portion of the total cost of critically needed supplies and equipment for Mission 2021. We are deeply thankful for each and every one of our Travel Team Members’ support, including Nick’s!

“I love being a part of these missions. All of our  Travel Team volunteers, our patients, our host-country colleagues are the most amazing, motivated, and inspiring people. The mission trips make a huge impact on me, let alone the patients themselves, and I can't get enough of them. Each time I've gone, I come back totally psyched about working in a nonprofit and the health sector.”             - Nicholas

Please consider making a donation in Nick’s name to support his fundraising commitment. Remember, 100% of all donations made to Operation Walk Pittsburgh directly support patient care during the mission. Will you help Nick reach his fundraising goal?