This Saturday, April 6th, 2013, at the Scarlet Inn of Wabash College, the Muslim Students’ Association will be hosting a “Philly Cheese Steak Festival” from 2pm-5pm. Cheese Steaks are only $5! This is a philanthropic opportunity to raise money for the Montgomery County Free Clinic that is asking for support to operate for two years and raise money to meet its $350,000.00 goal. 

 The organizer, Rashaan Stephens, is from West Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Cheese steak is a known attraction for tourists. They also will be offering Vegan Philly Cheese Steaks! For Rashaan, I sincerely hope you take this opportunity to donate to this charitable cause and assist in strengthening the relationship between the Wabash and Crawfordsville communities.

If you can’t attend, you can still make a contribution to the clinic: http://www.mcfreeclinic.org/contribution/ 

                                    Dr. Janet Rucker                                             Jay Dziwlik, Executive Director

                             Montgomery County Free Clinic               IN Dental Association Foundation

We estimate that we need $175,000 to operate the clinic each year. With the clinic on schedule to open in late summer, we need your help to raise at least $245,000 so that we have operating funds for two years. The clinic now looks like a real clinic. You can see it by driving by 186 S. Mill Street.

Go to http://www.mcfreeclinic.org/contribution/ for information about contributing.

We CELEBRATED in 2012 because we achieved one goal of raising $300,000. This met the challenge made by North Central Health Service (NCHS) in Lafayette and gave us access to $900,000 to transform the MainSource Bank Building at 186 Mill Street to The Dr. Mary Ludwig Free Clinic. If you drive by, now, you can see the change—the building no longer looks like a bank!

We hope to open in the summer of 2013, but we need to raise operating funds. $350,000 will allow us to operate for two years. So in the coming months, we will be contacting Montgomery County residents seeking your ongoing support.

Wow! What a year 2012 has been for Montgomery County Free Clinic, Inc.:

• We purchased the property at 816 Mill Street from MainSource Bank.
• We initiated a campaign to match a 3:1 challenge grant from North Central Health Service (NCHS) in Lafayette, IN. We were to raise $300,000 and NCHS would provide $900,000 for the renovation of the MainSource Bank Building. We also set a goal of $350,000 to fund the first two years of operations.
• Akers Construction Services, the Construction Manager for the project, started creating the Dr. Mary Ludwig Clinic in September.
• We achieved our initial goal of raising $300,000 in December, about 6 months after starting the campaign.
• We have raised more than $37,000 and have pledges exceeding $50,000 towards the Operating Fund goal of $350,000.

All of this has been possible because of the generosity of Montgomery County and the respect for Christian Nursing Service. We look forward to an exciting 2013 which will include the beginning of operations for the Dr. Mary Ludwig Free Clinic, a Volunteers in Medicine Clinic (VIM) which will provide a true medical and dental home for the uninsured of Montgomery County. Please join us by making a gift, offering to volunteer your service, celebrating the work of Christian Nursing Service, and by engaging others to become part of this effort.

Happy New Year Montgomery County!

Free Clinic Surpasses First Significant Goal

Crawfordsville, IN — The Montgomery County Free Clinic has reached one of its two significant fund-raising goals, and now qualifies for a $900,000 matching grant from North Central Health Services (NCHS).

MCFC Executive Director Bill Doemel announced Thursday that a $300,000 goal had been met when the Montgomery County Medical Trust (MCT) donated $20,000 to help establish the Dr. Mary Ludwig Free Clinic on Mill Street. In order to qualify for the NCHS grant, the community had to raise $300,000 on its own.

Fund-raising began in earnest with a public kickoff in June. At that event, the Medical Care Trust presented a first check of $10,000 to get the fund-raising drive started.

“How appropriate and exciting it is that before the year was out, the Medical Trust gave an additional $20,000, which brought the total received to more than $300,000,” said Doemel.

“The Medical Care Trust enthusiastically supports the efforts of the Dr. Mary Ludwig Free Clinic,” said MCT Board member Jill Rogers. “The MCT’s mission is to help provide healthcare access to the medically underserved in our community. The Clinic will play a key role in addressing this mission, and we are thankful for all of those who have worked to make this clinic become a reality.”

The Free Clinic grew out of the long-standing work of the Christian Nursing Service, which for 45 years has served uninsured citizens of Montgomery County. Unable to sustain its work without a physician, CNS volunteers worked with community leaders and local healthcare professionals to develop a plan for the Free Clinic based on the Volunteers in Medicine model.

“This is a very exciting time for all of associated with the Christian Nursing Service and Free Clinic,” said CNS President Chris Amidon. “From our volunteers to the many individuals and groups that have supported our fund-raising efforts, it’s clear that there is a need for the services the Clinic will provide and this community has risen to the challenge in support of those needs.”

The Free Clinic Board sought and received a grant from North Central Health Services in Lafayette for a new facility for medical and dental examination rooms, but in offering the grant, NCHS challenged the community to support the clinic, The clinic is named in honor of Dr. Mary Ludwig, who provided free physician services to the Christian Nursing Service throughout her career.

“I’m proud to say that we’ve reached our $300,000 goal,” said Doemel. “Thus far 51% of our funding has come from 254 individuals, 30% from foundations, 12% from churches, 5% from groups, and 1% from businesses. We couldn’t be more excited to say that this is a Montgomery County project supported by Montgomery County residents to support our neighbors.”

Last summer, the MCFC purchased the Main Source Bank Building on Mill Street. Renovation of that facility is now underway and Doemel believes it will be operational by mid-summer.

“The Montgomery County Community Foundation congratulates the Montgomery County Free Clinic for its superb efforts in raising support to bring quality medical care to our uninsured neighbors which was accomplished through the overwhelming generosity of our community,” said Kelly Taylor, who is the Executive Director of the MCCF.

In spite of the good news in reaching the NCHS challenge grant, there is a second, significant fund-raising goal to meet. Doemel said the Free Clinic Board has set a $350,000 goal for an operational fund. “While we have sufficient funds for the building itself, we now need operational funds since we receive no funding from the federal government.”

Approximately $50,000 has been raised toward the operations goal.

“While we’ve reached a key goal, another remains,” said MCFC Board President Dr. Janet Rucker. “As people think about ways to reward employees for their service, honor loved ones, or think about philanthropic holiday gifts, why not consider a gift to the Dr. Mary Ludwig Clinic through the Montgomery County Community Foundation? Doing so will help assure that the promise to provide health care to the uninsured will be fulfilled.”

Distribution of Contributions