Volunteer Spotlight: Bella SadrThis is also the first edition of our volunteer spotlight! One of our amazing volunteers, Bella Sadr (middle), who attended the Henderson Clinic, was asked some questions about herself and her experience at the clinic. Here is a little bit about Bella and what she had to say: Bella is a second-year student from Norfolk Virignia who is majoring in biochemistry with a minor in astronomy. The Henderson clinic was her second clinic, and there she worked on all three floors (dental, vision, and medical). Specifically, at Henderson, she enjoyed working with dental hygienists and was very complimentary on their ability to treat triple the number of patients they would normally see on an average workday. She mentioned that at the clinic one hygienist brought a balloon animal making kit and was taking the time to make balloon animals for all the young children at the clinic. Bella explained that the thoughtfulness at the core of the providers and volunteers that attend RAM clinics, makes them memorable and more meaningful.
We loved hearing about Bella's experience at Henderson and we are so excited for our next clinic. It's enthusiastic and hardworking volunteers like Bella who make RAM@UVA a special team!
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Thanks to the help of our amazing volunteers, we were able to provide care for over 500 patients and around $250,000 in services! This was an amazing experience for us to host an entire clinic, which had been almost two full years in the works. We could not have done it without our amazing leadership team, all of our committee members, and support from RAM. We also had around 100 RAM@UVA volunteers, interpreters, amazing providers, community partners, and more, who all volunteered their time to come to the clinic. We were amazed by the encouragement we had and patient turnout, providing countless patients needed healthcare. We can't wait for the next Fishersville clinic in 2024 to continue providing assistance to this community, and will be sure to announce the next clinic date once confirmed! Huge thanks to Garreth Bartholomew and the rest of the exec team for coordinating RAM’s Rural Health Equity and Access Panel with the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. We gathered in Garret Hall to hear speakers from a range of experts speak on the state and direction of rural healthcare, major obstacles to accessing health care, and what reforms are needed to make healthcare more accessible! We followed the panel with a Q&A session with our panelists and a catered dinner.
RAM @ UVA teamed up with Second Year Council to create care packages for the patients at our very own clinic in Fishersville. Volunteers created one continuous assembly line, packing toothbrushes and toothpaste, sanitizing wipes,…, a much more! In total, we packaged 288 care packages. Thank you to all those who volunteered to help!
UVA’s chapter of RAM started the fall semester off strong in September with a trip during fall break to the RAM clinic in Grundy, VA. Fueled by an incredible community host group that provided free meals and snacks to our 36 volunteers (our largest trip yet!) and coordinated free lodging at the Breaks Interstate Park, we were able to aid in providing $131,000 in medical services to 289 patients! Our members had incredible experiences connecting with the patients in patient registration and working in the dental tents with the fantastic dentists and dental students from the University of Buffalo. We were also lucky to get involved in the sanitation and distribution of medical equipment and the much loved “bucket brigade”.
A few members arrived early to help with the set up, and on Sunday we took down the dental floor before heading back to campus. Though sad to leave, our RAM-ily couldn’t help but look forward to our next clinic in Fishersville! RAM @ UVA 5k held our first annual 5K on April 3, 2022! We raised more than $3K over the past few weeks and 329 people registered for the race that will all go towards the Fishersville clinic in November! The event began on Mad Bowl, and runners ran on a loop down McCormick, then Alderman, and a bunch of neighborhood roads. The first 100 people who signed up also got a free RAM @ UVA 5k t-shirt! Thanks so much to everyone who came out to support the 5k both in person and virtual - we couldn’t have done it without you! Also, a huge thank you to everyone on the Finance Team for planning this event - amazing job! We’re looking forward to planning another 5k next year and expanding it to make it even bigger. We went to Knoxville twice this semester - both to volunteer at the annual Knoxville clinic and then again to volunteer at headquarters a few weeks later. The clinic was a great opportunity and we were able to help treat 874 patients and provide $521,824 in services. The Knoxville clinic was one of the biggest we’ve been on so far with 60 dental tents, which was amazing to see. Another group also went back to Knoxville headquarters and were able to help out with clinic preparations. They explored Knoxville for a bit and helped headquarters with fun tasks! We also got to talk to a lot of really cool RAM staff members! Knoxville was a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to going back next year! One of our founding executive board members, Meg Van Cleve, talks about her first time volunteering at a RAM Clinic last summer:
"I was so excited to finally attend my first RAM clinic in Savannah, GA at the end of August. After being a part of RAM at UVA, I thought that I had a pretty good idea of what to expect at the clinic, but I was still unprepared for how I felt afterwards. I anticipated feeling fulfilled and ready to sleep for a whole day. While one of those was true, I was far from satisfied. Instead, I wanted to do so much more for this organization and the people that it serves. The patients were full of gratitude, and I only wished that there was more that I could do to help them. I was also surprised by how often the core volunteers thanked me for being there— even though they are the ones who have dedicated so much of their time, traveling to countless clinics and serving thousands of people. There was truly a spirit of service that was evident from the moment we walked into the clinic, and I am already making plans to attend another clinic this year." |
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November 2022
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