Community Comes Together to Support FernCare Free Clinic
(Crystal A. Proxmire, April 29, 2025)
Ferndale, MI – For 16 years FernCare Free Clinic has been providing uninsured patients with life-saving healthcare, with thanks going to a nearly all volunteer staff and the generous support of donors whose gifts large and small add up to keep this grassroots nonprofit going.
The Annual Dinner gives companies like Royal Services, Credit Union One, Molina Healthcare, Collens Estate Law and the Whittie Law Center a chance to make a big impact. Individual donations helped also, with more than a dozen people sponsoring enough to cover annual services for one patient. In the past year the clinic has seen 1,800 patient visits and provided 2,250 prescriptions. They’ve made over 3,000 referrals to outside organizations for services like housing, food, and dental services. And they’ve helped 52 patients connect with programs to cover regular prescription needs, mainly insulin.
The clinic also helps patients who are eligible to sign up for Medicaid or to obtain low-cost health insurance on the Healthcare.gov marketplace.
Because FernCare works with volunteers and partners with other organizations that donate or provide reduced-cost services, they are able to do a lot with the resources they have. With a $250,000 budget they were able to provide care valued at $4.5 million, and they diverted $890,000 worth of services from local emergency rooms.
This past year had over 3,000 hours of volunteers providing service, and saw the expansion of clinic days from six sessions per month up to eight.
FernCare also partners with Henry Ford to bring the mammogram mobile to the clinic’s parking lot for free exams. And they help train students in the Wayne State University School of Pharmacy Education.
Another exciting bit of news is that when Drayton Avenue Presbyterian Church closed their doors, they were able to made a donation to FernCare that created an ongoing endowment fund through Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan. CFSEM manages the fund, which will provide annual capital to the organization based off the success of investments.
“Closing a church is a tragedy,” said Ferndale Director Dan Martin, “But I cannot think of a better seed to plant from that tragedy.”
In addition to hearing about the accomplishments of FernCare over the past year, guests were entertained by emcee Charlie Langton, got updates from Oakland County Treasurer Robert Wittenberg and State Senator Jeremy Moss, and got to enjoy an air of the 1980s that included a dessert table full of classic candies, radical neon decorations, and some bodacious fashions.
Learn more about the FernCare Free Clinic at https://ferncare.org/
