2022 Travel Team Feature: Sean Weir

Learn about Sean’s role on the travel team and the creative way he managed to meet his fundraising goal for this year’s trip!

Operation Walk Pittsburgh’s Mission 2022 is a little over six weeks away. 74 volunteers will make up our 2022 travel team. They will arrive in Antigua just a few days after our advance team, which arrives early to set up the hospital. We are looking forward to all being together again, and to welcoming first-time travel team members. 

Our next travel team member to be featured in this series is one of our returning team members, Sean Weir. Sean was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He currently lives in Moon Township with his wife, Courtney, daughter, Giavanna, and their two dogs. Sean is the system educator for UPMC’s Sterile Processing Onboarding Program. He has 13 years’ experience in the sterile processing field and has worked in various positions and facilities within the UPMC system. 

Sean with fellow travel team member, Dustin Jewell, sterilize and prep surgical instruments and equipment during Mission 2021.

In 2021, Sean participated in his first Operation Walk Pittsburgh mission trip to Antigua, Guatemala, as one of our sterile processing technicians. These important team members are responsible for cleaning, sterilizing, and preparing all surgical instrumentation sets ahead of each surgery. Of his experience being a member of Operation Walk Pittsburgh’s travel team, Sean had this to say. 

“My trip to Antigua opened my eyes to how surgery and care is different in other countries. Despite my “vision” of what it would be like, it was the opposite. I was surprised to see how well the hospital there is run and how dedicated and diligent the employees at Obras are. They care as much about giving their patients the best care experience and outcomes as we do in our own hospitals. It was really a pleasure to work at Obras with their care team and with my other OpWalk team members. The patients could really see and feel the impact of this team spirit. I knew the work I was doing was truly changing lives. I couldn’t wait to apply again this year. I wanted to give it one more go if I could. Antigua was truly a beautiful place and the mission trip has plenty to offer for both veteran team members and newcomers alike.” 

In 2022, Sean applied to the travel team and was invited back to participate in the mission as a member of this year’s team. He was really excited to hear the news and got to work spreading the word.

Each travel team member agrees to a fundraising commitment as a condition of acceptance to the travel team, and donations made on behalf of team members are used to help defray the cost of critically needed supplies and equipment for the mission. Each team member engages in informal fundraising efforts among their network of family members, friends and coworkers in order to meet their fundraising goal. Many get creative and have fun in the process! 

“I thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to have a little “friendly” wager with my friends, family, and social media followers,” Sean told us. 

Sean’s beard prior to the wager.

He made a bet that if he could raise enough money to meet his fundraising goal, then he would shave his head and his beard. While this might not seem important to most, it was to him. His fan favorite beard took him over 8 months to grow, manicure, and perfect. Needless to say, his social media followers started leaving comments in his posts about the wager, wondering what Sean might look like under all that hair and cracking funny jokes about the wager. Friends and family members started making donation after donation in order to figuratively force Sean into a corner of hair clippers so they could see all that precious hair come off! In just one week, he raised enough money to fund his trip. Two weeks later, the shears came out. To see him now, you would think that he was 20 years younger! While his wife did not even want to look at his bald head, he met his goal. His social media followers were amused and ecstatic that he followed through on his commitment. We will let the photos speak for themselves….

Sean said that he hoped more people would donate on his behalf so he could credit other team members who might be struggling to reach their goals. Won’t you consider donating to Sean so that he can pay it forward for other travel team members? 

100% of all donations will be used to help other travel team members reach their fundraising goals, which in turn directly supports patient care during the mission. Will you help Sean help others and give a patient in need the gift of mobility?