With Generous Donation, FernCare Expands Pharmacy (video)
(Crystal A. Proxmire, March 19, 2015)
The area where Christine Rainey and her team of volunteers (plus sometimes a couple of students from Wayne State) would stand to fill prescriptions for the FernCare Free Clinic was about the size of two closets. In this cramped space they would sacrifice four hours of prime weekend time to help serve people without health insurance with the medication they needed in order to live.
Among those volunteers were Melissa (Mel) Jones and Shawna Ivancic, who have since moved to Finland. When Judy Jones saw the “tiny shoebox of a room” where her daughter and daughter’s partner did their work, she felt she had to do something about it.
And on Saturday, March 14 that “something” was revealed. Jones had donated the money remodel inside the building and expand the pharmacy to three times the original size. Contractors David Curtis and Tom Hodges used the $7,000 gift to purchase materials while they, their families and other workers donated all the labor to make it possible.
A plaque now sits on the patient side of the pharmacy window, honoring Jones and the builders along with other members of the FernCare board and staff. In addition to showing off the new room, everyone celebrated with a champagne or sparkling juice toast. Blue tape marked the floor where the wall had once been.
“The real heroes are those who used their ‘spare time’ to come here and help those that need medical care. You take your time away from your family to help those in need. Hopefully with a larger pharmacy more people can get the medical care and medications that will help them feel better and live longer lives,” Jones said.
FernCare President Ann Heler thanked everyone involved and stressed that everything about FernCare has been done with the generosity of people in the community who give. Board Member Rudy Serra said that the organization is in need of an accountant and an office manager, and that ongoing donations are always needed.
FernCare is a free medical clinic offering services to anyone between the ages of 19 through 64 who has no health insurance or primary care provider. The nonprofit offers medical care, benefits counseling, basic lab testing, dispense generic medications, mental health counseling, a diabetic support group and enrollment assistance for both the ACA marketplace and Healthy Michigan. The clinic is located at 459 E. Nine Mile Road
Ferndale, MI 48220. For more information go to www.ferncare.org.