SEMINOLE — For more than 30 years, Dr. Sandra Lilo gave her time, her skills and her heart to not only the Seminole community, but to children and causes across the globe.
As a passionate Rotarian, she spent decades of her life putting “Service Before Self,” touching the lives of thousands and having an extraordinary impact on those who needed help the most.
Lilo passed away Aug. 5 at the age of 69.
Originally from the Midwest, Lilo first opened her dental practice in Seminole more than three decades ago. She served on the board of directors for the Seminole Chamber of Commerce and was one of the co-founders of the Seminole Historical Society and was involved with the organization of the Seminole Pow Wow and Stampede.
A member of the Seminole Lake Rotary Club for more than 30 years, Lilo worked as the organization’s international services chairperson, which includes 50 clubs, for the local Rotary district, and has volunteered for the organization’s international services since 1991. She was named the club’s Rotarian of the Year four times and was named Ms. Seminole by the Greater Seminole Area Chamber of Commerce in 2021.
In the late 1990s, Lilo became interested in medical mission work — specifically cleft palate repairs. She joined a group of Rotarians from Chicago on a trip to Peru in 1997. She enjoyed herself so much she formed her own mission group, which she named RotoCleft.
Pinellas County resident John Gallant worked with Lilo during her first trip to Peru where she operated a cleft palette surgery clinic.
“Most people knew Sandra through RotoCleft — the cleft palate mission she built out of the Rotary Club of Seminole Lake and ran into Peru year after year,” Gallant wrote in a Facebook post following her death. “She started it in about the plainest way possible: she heard a team was doing this work, asked to come along, was told to send a donation instead, and decided Pinellas County would have its own team. Then she went and built one.”
Gallant said the first cleft palate clinic took place in Huánuco, Peru, in January 1998, where 28 patients, from ages 3 to 21, underwent surgery.
That was just the beginning.
“Mission after mission, mountains to sea, for nearly thirty years,” Gallant wrote. “Surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, dentists, translators, equipment, grants, customs paperwork — assembled every single time by a woman who did not accept no as an answer.
“I don’t know how many children can eat, speak, and smile because of her,” he continued. “Neither did she. The number was never what she was after.”
In the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, which struck the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm, Lilo jumped into action. She immediately reached out to fellow Rotarians on the island of Nassau to see what survivors needed. Within a week, she had collected nearly 700 blankets. Lilo then joined forces with St. Petersburg-based SOL Relief, a disaster relief company that flies supplies to areas recovering from disasters.
Once the immediate danger had passed, Lilo narrowed her focus to the Long Bay School, a K-12 that has struggled to recover after Dorian. With the help of Rotarians and volunteers, Lilo’s efforts helped the school reopen for students.
“I never use the words charity work, I don’t like that,” Lilo said in an interview with Tampa Bay Newspapers in 2022. “I always call it service work. When you are doing something for someone, you get a gift back that is almost bigger. Those of us who served were honored to have the opportunity to do God’s work.
“It becomes about who you are,” she continued. “It’s just this connection to humanity — to feel like you are a part of something bigger. And sometimes, we find ourselves along the way.”
Seminole resident Wilda Whittle remembers Lilo as someone who wasn’t afraid of hard work and someone who was always willing to lend a hand.
“She was really a giver,” Whittle said. “You know, whenever I would call her, she’d say, ‘Hi, how are you? What can I do for you?’”
“You know, she traveled the world, and she just gave and gave and gave,” Whittle continued. “She was everywhere doing everything that she could. And it’s not just that she made a few phone calls, or she arranged for things. I mean, she got her hands dirty, you know? She did the actual work.”
Longtime friend Rosa Sang joined Lilo on a number of international Rotary mission trips, including to Canada, Peru, Panama and Cuba.
“I have known Sandra for 20-plus years, and she just gave me the opportunity to serve,” Sang said. “And you just have to show up and do whatever is needed for the call.”
Sang, who was born in the Dominican Republic but is ethnically Chinese, said Lilo called her up one day to ask if she wanted to go to China.
“In that trip, there were 11 of us Rotarians who went,” Sang said.
But it wasn’t just the work that Sang remembers the most from that trip — it was a gift Lilo had waiting for her.
“She arranged for me to go back to the village where my mother was born and raised,” Sang said. “That was so touching for me.
“You know, with Sandra, she gave the opportunity to all of us — to everybody, the whole world — to show up and just do the best you can,” she continued. “And that was just her.”
Fellow Rotarian Gerry Cachia said he owes his involvement with the service organization to Lilo, who served as his sponsor with the group. He said that when Lilo walked into a meeting with purpose, people stopped to listen.
“People that have greatness about them have presence, and you know, she certainly had one to me,” Cachia said. “And when she walked in the room, everybody knew that she meant business with whatever she was going to present.
“If I could pattern the rest of my life in Rotary on how she did it, I would do it,” Cachia continued.
Cachia said that Lilo’s death has left a hole in the world that won’t be easy to replace.
“She was irreplaceable in my mind, and it’s not only a hole in our Rotary family for Seminole Lake, but it’s a hole in all of Rotary,” he said. “Not only because we’ll miss her as a friend, but just her spirit and drive and all the things she stood for are very difficult to replace. You just can’t replace them.”
Lilo is survived by her brother, Steven, and her nephew, Jake.