Day 7

Saturday

03/23/2013

            Today we volunteered at a free health care clinic at Harlan County High School sponsored by R.A.M. (Remote Area Medical). The organization has sponsored similar clinics throughout the country but this was their first time coming to Harlan County. The organizers expected to provide medical services to over 1000 people from Harlan and the surrounding counties throughout the weekend. The success of the clinic depended largely on the 300+ volunteers, including many students from University of Louisville and University of Kentucky.

            We arrived at the high school around 5:30 this morning. We checked in, got our t-shirts and were immediately assigned duties. Most of us were assigned registration, while others helped with directing dental patients. This was a great opportunity for us to talk to members of the community and gain a better insight into what life is like for the people here. Once registration slowed down we were moved around and given new jobs. For some of us this meant helping assemble eye glasses. Others assisted the dentists. The final job was emptying waste collected from the suction. We determined this was the second grossest task of the week - second only to cleaning Ellen’s house.

            While none of us enjoyed waking up at 4:30 in the morning and spending hours on our feet, we all agreed it was well worth it to help make the clinic such a success. All of the procedures provided today were at no cost to the patients, and all of the medical staff were there as unpaid volunteers. On one of our breaks we talked to one of the dental students and she explained her reasons for volunteering her time at the clinic. She explained that she was given these skills in dentistry and felt that more than being given an opportunity to practice her craft she was using her skills to help people that were in need. I think this really summed up the whole trip and reason we came to Harlan. None of us needed to come to Kentucky for our spring break, but we all chose to. We each decided to give up time that we could have spent on ourselves to help and serve others.