This is part two of a series of posts about how Green Country Free Clinic began in 1990.
By 1989, Gerald and I had been married for several years, had two children and had moved to Bartlesville. He had become an MD and opened a family practice. I was a registered nurse working at Jane Phillips Medical Center.
At that time Bartlesville was very booming and affluent, but typically when an area is prospering, the non-affluent have fewer services available.
I could see there was a need for a free medical clinic in Bartlesville. There were poor people here who wouldn’t get medical care in any other way.
I spent the year from 1989 to 1990 getting ready to open the clinic’s doors. I got support, advice and guidance from many people who had worked in free clinics, or who knew about legal issues such as incorporating and getting non-profit status.
Gerald played a huge part in encouraging me and supporting the clinic. In the early years, he was one of the major staff members treating patients. He was all for the clinic, and still is today.
My parents were always there to help too, answering questions and guiding me, both during the process of starting the clinic and later.
When they moved to Bartlesville in 1993, my mother became a volunteer, and soon became the coordinator of the non-medical volunteers. My late Dad did all of our bookkeeping and was treasurer. They both made a very big commitment to the clinic.
My church family at St. James Catholic Church here in Bartlesville was also instrumental in helping start the clinic, including Father Skeehan, who was pastor in 1989. They gave me some seed money to start — I think it was about $500.
Some of our first volunteers and most of our founding board members came from St. James Church as well. We’re not a Catholic or religious-oriented clinic, though. They were just the people I knew, so they helped.
From the start of planning, it was obvious that the clinic would need both a space and doctors who would see patients on a volunteer basis.
I’ll write more about how we found both in my next post.