Community Health Free Clinic - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

CHFC Newsletter - March 1, 2007

Dear Friends of the Uninsured,

Spring is a time of hope! And every day is a day of hope for those who arrive at the Community Health Free Clinic (CHFC)… hopeful that they will receive prompt, free medical care. Maybe they were directed to CHFC when they told a staff person at one of the hospitals they had no money to fill a prescription. In fact, the demand for our services is growing explosively! We register 375 new patients per month. We see 1,800 patients per month and provide them with 3,000 services per month. We care for over 15,000 patients.

Please note the change of Board members and Advisors. Dr. Galbraith is now volunteering on Fund Development and the Information and Technology Committee. I can’t wait for you to meet our new Board President, Dan Hawthorne. Dan and his wife Gail, have spent many of hours on the bleachers at St. Joe’s & Regis High School with Lee and me when we were raising our families. Dan has served the Board as our Treasurer and Vice President. Recently retired from Rockwell Collins he is looking forward to dedicating himself to move CHFC forward in 2007 and 2008. We are so lucky to have such an engaged Board of Directors, Advisors and Dedicated Volunteers!

In November we completed our first audit with Clifton and Gunderson LLP and we are pleased to announce that we are squeaky clean! We are very serious about being frugal and accountable for every penny of your precious donations.

We will be a pilot program for the State of Iowa, Prescription Drug Donation Repository Program. This is under the direction of the Public Health and the Iowa Prescription Drug Corporation located in West Des Moines. This sounds promising because it may result in another source of free medications.

In 2004 we saw a 17 year old female with hemoglobin of 3.6. Normal range is 12-16. She had been telling her parents she was ill but they had no money for treatment. One morning she felt so bad she called the neighbor and they brought her to the Clinic. With treatment we were able to correct the problem. Again, in January 2007 she came back, and laboratory results showed a hemoglobin of 8.8 and other medical concerns. The reason for mentioning this is to demonstrate how patients unfortunately must rely on us. They know each patient will be treated with dignity and without regard to their ability to pay.

Just like our patients rely on us, we rely on you to “pitch in” three times a year when we mail these appeals. Every November, March and July we ask for contributions. Please pass along our message and ask your relatives, organizations, neighbors, friends and churches to help us so we can continue to help others in need. Would you like to donate on line? Please go to www.communityhfc.org and press the “donate now” button. We pay $20.00 per month and 3% of your donation for this convenience. In the near future we plan to implement a new donor software program. It will help us to meet new Internal Revenue requirements enacted in 2007. However I will still see and acknowledge every contribution as in years past. Enclosed is an envelope for your consideration at your convenience.

Please allow me to once again end my letter with a quote. Leonard Pitts, a writer from the Miami Herald, just wrote in his column 1-17-07 in The Cedar Rapids Gazette about dreaming. He wrote, “It is a fine and noble thing to have a dream. But having a dream is no excuse for accepting an onerous status quo and waiting passively on “someday” to make things right. A dream is not an excuse. It’s a responsibility. And now is still the time”. Our great community understands what it takes to realize a dream, and we work on it every day. Thank you for your past help and thank you for your future help. We are doing our tiny part and making a difference between life and early death for the needy of East Central Iowa. The Community Health Free Clinic is part of a community partnership and I’m confident we will continue to see the dream and hope of thousands!

In Friendship,

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

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

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