Volunteers Find More Seeking Care
Sometimes Gary Mamola’s hand pauses as he fills out forms for patients at Coeur d’Alene’s free health clinic. For four years, his wife, Sandy, has run the all-volunteer clinic that offers medical care to people with no insurance or Medicaid.
Still, Gary sometimes is staggered by what he hears.
“Almost everyone I see works, a lot of them full-time in minimum-wage jobs,” he says during a recent night at the clinic. “You just don’t realize how many people have nothing.”
On this night, a dozen shivering people line up outside the Panhandle Health District’s Coeur d’Alene office waiting for the clinic to open. The health district donates use of its building twice each week to the clinic.
Sandy expects a crowd. The clinic had to turn away people the previous night because it was short-staffed. Sandy runs like a hamster in a wheel to find volunteer doctors. But occasionally, the clinic doesn’t open because no one is available.
The volunteers have worked all day at their jobs, but they tease each other in the clinic as they prepare to see patients late into the evening.
“You have to be kind of wacko here,” pharmacist Kathy Ream says as she sorts the donated medication.
One couple with five boys tells Gary they hold three jobs between them, but none offers insurance. The man is worried about a lump on his nose. They are typical of the clinic’s clientele, Gary says.
“If only (Bob) Dole and the Republicans could work in these clinics Tuesdays and Thursdays and see people with low-paying jobs, no insurance, the ones with no safety net,” says Skip Frazier, the clinic’s volunteer counselor. He shakes his head sadly. “If we weren’t here, where would they go?”
One woman drove to the clinic from Sandpoint in the snow for medication for an abscessed tooth. The clinic has no volunteer dentists. Sandy has enough trouble finding doctors.
“I come here once a month and miss it in between,” says Dr. Richard Zahn. “I get more out of this than I give, by far.”
Good job, folks
Coeur d’Alene’s Kim Loats was skiing last week when the hunt began for Pullman’s Andy Zeller.
Kim was so pleased with the happy ending that she and friends organized a thank-you dinner for the rescuers. The party’s 4-7 p.m., Sunday, at Timbers in Kellogg.
Kim’s employers donated $200. She figures she needs about $1,000 to feed the 200 people involved, including Andy.
Want to help? Send donations to the Andy Zeller Search and Rescue Fund at any First Security bank branch. Kim says any leftovers - money, not food - will go to the Ski Patrol.
Let the good times roll
I asked for the best times in the area and Coeur d’Alene’s Donna Young remembered 1967. That year, the World Scout Jamboree gathered at Farragut State Park.
Thousands of boys from around the world came for nine days in August. Some had trouble booking flights out, so they stayed with North Idaho families.
Donna hosted boys from Argentina, Madagascar and Burundi. “It was like a three-day party,” she says. “And it was great for the city. Any racist stuff just disappeared.”
Maybe it’s time to do it again?
Lights out
A colleague and her teenage daughter heated soup on the woodstove and read “Mrs. Piggle Wiggle” aloud by candlelight after their power went out last week. What’s the most fun you’ve had without power?
Sizzle a story out for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; FAX to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.
, DataTimes