Follow executive director Carol Sale on a short tour through the Lackey Free Clinic.
In 1995, Dr. Jim Shaw and his wife, Cooka, decided to answer a persistent call from God to provide free health care for the uninsured. They partnered with Rising Sun Baptist Church and there, a handful of volunteers began treating the economically and medically disadvantaged in the community one night a week.
Word of the clinic spread slowly at first and initially there were about two to ten patients served per month. However, the Shaws persisted in their efforts to serve the poor. After York County allowed the Clinic to operate out of the Charles Brown Community Center in 1997, the stream of patients and volunteers grew and so did the vision.
In September 2000, the patient visits had increased to 100 each month and a second weekly clinic session was offered. They began to believe that one day they would provide these much-needed services inside a well-equipped facility that the medical ministry would own and better serve the physical and spiritual needs of the patients. This vision was actualized with a dedication ceremony for a new building in August of 2003. At this time, the clinic added a pharmacy enabling the patients to access free medicine. In 2004, a free dental clinic was opened as well as one of Virginia's first free chronic-care clinics for patients with diabetes, hypertension, asthma and other ongoing conditions.
Lackey Free Clinic is part of Project Care, a partnership of free clinics, community health centers, the three area hospital systems, and over 200 greater Peninsula physicians, whose mission is to provide medical, dental and surgical care to uninsured, indigent patients at no cost. Project Care's founders included two former board members and directors of Lackey Clinic.
The Clinic continues to grow and serve more patients at its present location at 1620 Old Williamsburg Rd. With your generous support, we can continue to serve these good people and ensure that the story of Lackey Free Clinic will have many more chapters.
The Health Journal is a monthly publication that promotes fitness, health and wellness to over 50,000 readers in the Williamsburg and Hampton Roads areas of Virginia.
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