MANATEE COUNTY- The Remote Area Medical Clinic offers health care for the uninsured and under-served on the Suncoast. Hundreds are expected to see doctors, dentists and optometrist at no cost, this weekend. Senior Clinic Coordinator, Poppy Green says RAM Clinic is expecting more than a thousand patients to walk into Manatee Technical College seeking care, and walk out treated.
“Often, they’re faced daily with tough decisions taking care of their own healthcare needs and paying their bills or taking care of their children or fixing their car. When we welcome them in, they’ve waited a long time. They’ve been in pain, they’ve been squinting, or they’ve been out of work because they don’t have glasses to do their job,” said Green.
Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences students volunteer their time Thursday, to hang up their art pieces for patients to enjoy.
“It makes me feel good, because then we know that we are doing something to help people to have a better quality of life,” said 8th grader, Anna Sinclair.
Sinclair said it’s a lot of hard work, but students worked together to create PSA’s and artwork promoting healthcare and HIV testing.
“It wasn’t easy,” Sinclair said, “but we did all come together and we had a big variety of people putting forth effort to try and help.”
Green said this weekend-long event is all about getting the community together to serve their neighbors in need.
“Consistently, the volunteer dentists, optometrists, and hygienists and physicians say this is why they got into medicine, this is why they got into the dental field or the optometry field was to give back to those most in need,” said Green.
RAM Clinic at Manatee Technical College begins Saturday morning, with ticket distribution beginning at 3 a.m. and doors opening at 6 a.m.