Hundreds of cars packed the parking lot at the Spokane County Fairgrounds Aug. 3 on the first morning of Your Best Pathway to Health. Just inside the gates, a group of volunteers wearing polo shirts and carrying clipboards waited to help people coming in. A man approached one of the shirted volunteers and asked about the wait for dental care.
“If you come back before 6, that’d be good,” he told the man, telling him today’s slots were already full. “But they do it all. They’ve got a good system down. You could stay and get a haircut.”
He detailed a list of other free medical services the man could get while he waited for dental care, including diabetic foot examinations, audiology services, EKGs, X-rays, cancer screenings, or even just lunch.
“All these are 100 percent free of charge,” said Costin Jordache, vice president for communication for the Central California Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist church.
The clinic is hosted by SDA, Adventist-Laymen’s Services & Industries (ASI) and Adventist Health West. Since the event is only two days long, the organizers work with local medical organizations to provide follow-up appointments and care for things like lab test results and eyeglasses.
It’s 1 p.m. and more than 1,300 people have already shown up for treatment at the clinic. While people wait for services, bands play live music and volunteers hand out brown-bagged free lunches. People who want services need to visit a registration table first, although no one has to provide proof of income, Jordache said.
Some have been turned away, mostly for dental care, said Ken LeBrun, a pastor who is volunteering from Kettle Falls. Dental is the most popular treatment at the clinic in every city Pathway offers services.
“In all the cities, dental is by far the greatest need people have,” Jordache said. “These are the folks living with pain day in and day out.”
This is likely because of gaps in insurance coverage — many people who want dental care have insurance, but their coverage has a high deductible for dental care that they can’t afford, or the coverage doesn’t include dental at all.
More than 100 organizations work with SDA to put on the event, Jordache said, including medical and dental supply companies and local organizations like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, to name a few.
“It really is a village that puts this thing together,” he said.
The heart of the effort, though, is the massive pool of volunteers. At the Spokane event, about 1,500 people from all over the world volunteer in every capacity to put on Your Best Pathway to Health, from doctors, nurses and interpreters, to media and security workers. Jordache said this year volunteers traveled from Peru, Australia, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia, among other places.
Roger Gallant, an emergency room physician, hails from northern California. He’s the medical services director for the mega-clinic, and he’s taking a week that would otherwise be his time off to be here. Like the other medical workers, he’s doing the work, and taking the trip, without pay.
“This is my vacation for me and my family this year,” Gallant said. “Our kids know that service is an important thing and we value it. I want to spread the love of Jesus to others. God has done a lot for me and I’m grateful.”
Pathway to Health wasn’t always this big. The mobile clinic began two years ago with just two doctors, Lela and Chris Lewis, who wanted to do something to serve others with their talents. They started with about 500 volunteers at an event in Oakland, Calif., Jordache said, and it grew from there.
“I think this is becoming a bit of a movement,” he said. “Service and mission. That’s the most important thing – to serve and love the way Jesus did.”
[box type=”info” align=”” class=”” width=””]IF YOU GO Aug. 4 Place: Spokane County Fairgrounds Time: 7 a.m-4 p.m. Appointments are first-come, first-serve No income or religious requirements necessary More information or to volunteer for a future event: YourBestPathwayToHealth.org[/box]
This shows how much services like this are needed and wanted and the great good they are doing! Thanks for covering this, Liz!
I was there and received a crown among other things. These people are amazing for all they do.