Community Health Free Clinic - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Volunteer Stories

Here are some stories of volunteers at the Community Health Free Clinic :

Why Harry Chose to
Make A Lasting Difference for the Community Health Free Clinic…

In May 2008, Brenda J. Suszko, an early CHFC volunteer, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and lost her battle with the disease in October 2009. In memoriam to his wife Brenda, Harry made a gift to the “Friends of Community Health Free Clinic” through the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation and became a Charter Member of the Galbraith Schmidt Society. We asked Harry how he and Brenda became involved in CHFC and why his continued support.

“Brenda became involved with the Community Health Free Clinic at the request of a volunteer that we knew through our church. Since Brenda’s education was in health information management and she had previously worked at one of the local hospitals but was not working and had time available, it was a perfect fit for Brenda to help with computer data entry of medical information. This was done at Darlene’s home in the early days of the clinic. Brenda saw a need and was compelled to fulfill that need.

When there was a problem with the computer program, Brenda asked for my help and I would go to Darlene’s home in the evening to sort out the problem. Since the clinic was growing, Darlene had found office space in Cedar Rapids to move the data entry work out of her home. I became involved by setting up the initial computer systems to support the accounting and medical data entry at the “new” office space. I saw a need and was compelled to fulfill the need.

After the move to the new facility, Brenda was thrilled every Tuesday helping at the clinic and working with the other volunteers. But during her illness, she had missed so much not helping out at the clinic. There was a time where she thought she had beaten the illness and was so looking forward to volunteering again. However, her journey on life’s path had ended sooner then we all had hoped. Yet, even though Brenda can no longer volunteer her time, I thought that providing a monetary donation to the endowment and general operating funds in memory of her volunteer spirit would continue fulfilling the need at the Community Health Free Clinic.”

Harry Suszko

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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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