Community Health Free Clinic - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

CHFC Flood Report - July 2008

July 2008

To All of Our Friends and Supporters:

With this letter, I will attempt to bring you up to date on some of the recent activities of the Community Health Free Clinic. The publication of our Annual Report, with the full year’s information, will be delayed until later this fall due to a shift of priorities in the aftermath of the flood.

As we all know, the Flood of 2008 has devastated our neighborhoods and community. We pray that each of you is safe and healthy. We want you to know that the Clinic was deeply and continuously involved in helping the victims of the flood. Without your faithful support, we would not have been able to help! At the same time, we continued to serve our daily patients. The only day the Clinic was not available for routine patient care was Friday, June 13, 2008. Here are some of the highlights of the services the Clinic and its volunteers provided during the flood:

Provided nine full days of medical coverage both at Viola Gibson & Prairie High School Shelters with over 950 hours of service.
Specifically treated over 300 individuals with repeated visits equaling over 550 services.
Mercy Medical Center provided five days of coverage of Registered Nurses to help augment our shifts.
We worked in conjunction with DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team) established by the federal government which sends help. DMAT must have local assistance to aid in local community resources information and provide medical care.
For the first 24 hours CHFC housed medically fragile patients on site before losing electricity.

CHFC IN-KIND PARTNERS
*If anywhere in this Report we have forgotten someone or made a mistake, it is an unintentional oversight. Please forgive us!

Linn County Emergency Management Agency
DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team)
American Red Cross Grant Wood Area Chapter
Mercy Medical Center (Special thanks to Social Services)
St Luke’s Hospital (Special thanks to Social Services)
Linn County Public Health Department
State of Iowa Volunteer Health Care Provider Program
Pharmaceutical companies too numerous to list
Quality Print Shop
Verizon Wireless
Slumberland Furniture
Church of Latter- Day Saints (cleaning kits and bottled water)
Ron Baty, Coldwell Banker Hedges Realty – soft drinks
Linn County Lifts Bus
Abbe Center Mental Health Professional
Social Concerns of the Marion Churches – provided transportation

Thanks to all of you who donated time, clothes, cleaning supplies, water, food, labor, temporary homes, and prayer to those who lost so much! Our community has truly come together! It will take some time, but we will rebuild even stronger than before!

However, between now and then, Community Health Free Clinic needs your help more than ever! The huge losses for many families mean that affording medical care will be even more of a challenge. The Clinic expects to see an increase in patient numbers and need.

Please consider a generous gift to help defray the cost of medical, dental and eye care for those in need during this unprecedented crisis! Please know that your gift will make a tremendous difference in the lives of so many of your neighbors – people you may never meet. We have enclosed a return envelope for your convenience.

On behalf of each of those neighbors, thank you for your kindness and caring,

Warm regards,

Darlene Schmidt
CEO/CED Community Health Free Clinic
Clinic Co-Founder and Advocate for the uninsured since 1995

top of page

site directory | home | contact clinic

Mission: To provide Medical and Dental care to the uninsured and under-served
of East Central Iowa through model Community Partnerships.

©Community Health Free Clinic. All rights reserved.
EIN:#13-4228071