MCLinc donates $25K
Visitors to A.K. Bissell Park greeted the new year with fireworks, music and a ball drop on New Year’s Eve.
Free Medical Clinic organized the event and sold beverages.
Through sponsors, funds collected that night, and a grant the group broke even, rather than raising additional funds for the organization.
However, the local company MCLinc and its employees donated $25,000 presented in a ceremony at the event.
That money will go toward patient care and operations of Free Medical Clinic sites, and the mobile unit serving Anderson, Morgan and Roane counties, Billy Edmonds, the Free Medical Clinic’s executive director, said.
Free Medical Clinic provides primary and preventive care, including in-person and telehealth; specialty care including cardiologist, orthopedic, gastrointestinal, neurology, respiratory and sleep studies; diagnostics including imagining, lab work, testing, screenings, vaccines and immunizations; access to medication, resources and equipment; mobile clinic unit and medical events such as Remote Area Medical, Back to School Healthy and flu and COVID-19 pop-up clinics; special medical programs including hepatitis, women’s health, lung cancer, diabetes, optometry and eyeglasses; medical referrals, patient financial assistance and pharmacy vouchers; and medical and nursing student clinical rotations.
To qualify for these services, an applicant must lack health insurance and be a resident of Anderson, Morgan, or Roane county in Tennessee, or be a member, employee or student of one of the Free Medical Clinic partners like Roane State Community College or Tennessee College of Applied Technology.
They must also meet income requirements.
A single person must make no more than $29,160 a year; a family of two no more than $39,440; a family of three $49,720 or less; a family of four $60,000 or less and a family of five, $70,280 or less.
Anyone needing medical care and meeting these requirements can go to fmcor.org or call the clinics in Oak Ridge at 865-483-3904, Briceville at 865-338-5900, Rockwood at 865-234-6053, or the mobile unit at 865-483-4718.
“We were thrilled to ring in the New Year with our community either with the 2,500-3,000 who attended in person or the over 10,000 who watched online or on Channel 12 BBB TV,” Edmonds aaid.
“We look forward to next year as we create an even better experience for us all.
“Until then, thank you to our donors, volunteers and partners for a great 2023, as we provided [more than] 12,000 patient appointments worth [more than] $7.8 million in medical care for the working poor,” he said. “FMC could not do this without you.”
Anyone who is interested in volunteering may go online to fmcor.org or email mvc@fmcor.org.