Community Free Clinic Newsletter

Prescription for Success

Vol. 1.8 - October 2007

Dr. Garabed A. Fattal Community Free Clinic

Federal Grant Application Rejected

            The Binghamton Campus of SUNY Upstate Medical University experienced a temporary set back in its effort to secure federal dollars to transition the Dr Garabed A. Fattal Community Free Clinic into a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). The Upstate Binghamton Campus sponsors the Free Clinic and submitted the application on its behalf.

           The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant would have provided up to $600,000 annually to build on the work of the Free Clinic. The new community health center (another name for a FQHC) would have been open more hours to serve a greater number of patients and provide a broader range of services.

           It is not unusual for HRSA grant applicants to be denied funding in their first effort. Often a revision of the application results in an award on the second try. The Free Clinic appears to have a second chance at securing a federal grant. HRSA just announced a New Access Point grant opportunity that would provide monies to organizations seeking to become a community health center. A review of this grant opportunity and the potential for submitting an application is underway. 

Money Is Needed Now

           Clinic funds are at a dangerously low point.  Fund raising is critical to the survival of the Free Clinic.  If you are interested in assisting with fund raising projects, please contact Darlene Howland at 771-3721 or by emailing dhowland@upstate.edu.

New Ways We Can All Help

            There are many ways that you and others can help support our Free Clinic.  Here are two ways that anyone who uses a computer to access the Internet (at home or at work) can help us with a minimum of effort.

            Will you be doing some (or ALL) of your holiday shopping online this year?  If so, you now have an opportunity to help the Community Free Clinic every time you purchase something at one of over 680 online merchants.  If you would like to see the list of participating merchants, along with the percentages each merchant will contribute, please visit the iGive site http://www.igive.com/html/merchantlist.cfm. 

            The first step is to register with iGive.com.  All that is required is to visit this special http://www.iGive.com/FreeClinic link to create your personal iGive.com account.  The iGive.com system will create a cookie on your computer in order to track your visits and purchases.  You can choose to participate anonymously if you desire, or you can choose to receive documentation for tax deduction purposes.  Either way results in a contribution for the Dr. Garabed A. Fattal Community Free Clinic.

            Right now, just surfing (without buying anything) can help us, too.  Every time you visit participating online stores through iGive.com between 10/1/07 and 7/31/08, it counts as one entry in iGive.com's Surfathon sweepstakes for a chance to win a $1,000 donation. They're giving away $1,000 to 5 winning causes, every month for the next 10 months!  Just join iGive.com for free and check out their stores to increase the Free Clinic’s chances of winning one of those $1,000 donations. Remember, you don't even have to buy anything, but you must visit new stores.  If you visited 10 new stores every day for a month, you could generate 300 entries for the clinic just by clicking around and doing some Internet “window shopping.”  Remember, they will be awarding five of these $1,000 donations every month for the next ten months.

            If you do happen to make a purchase through iGive.com within 45 days of joining, iGive.com will donate an EXTRA $5 to the Community Free Clinic.  With over 680 participating stores, it should be easy to find things you need AND support the Free Clinic.

            Another innovative way to contribute to the Free Clinic is by using the Yahoo-based search engine at http://www.goodsearch.com.  Each time you search using GoodSearch, a small amount will be donated to the Dr. Garabed A. Fattal Community Clinic.  No registration is required.  All you need to do is enter the Community Free Clinic in the beneficiary box or use the following personalized URL http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=855709 (the Community Free Clinic will be pre-selected for you). You only need to do this the first time you use GoodSearch.  The system will then remember your beneficiary selection each time you go to http://www.goodsearch.com.

            Please Note: You can help the Free Clinic by including these iGive.com and GoodSearch links in your emails to friends and family members.  Encourage them to register and start supporting our clinic, too.

Thanks For Your Support

            As always, we want to thank our volunteers for their continued dedication to the mission of the Free Clinic, serving uninsured adults in Broome County.  Without the hard work of our volunteers over the past ten years, the Free Clinic would not have been able to provide much-needed services to this medically under-served group.

Kudos To Dr. Brown

            Please extend your personal congratulations to Dr. Thomas Brown when you see him at the clinic.   Dr. Brown was the recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Philanthropic Service, Individual at the SUNY Upstate Medical University Fall Faculty Convocation.

New Faces At The Clinic

            We have two new volunteers in our Free Clinic pharmacy.  Please give these new volunteers a warm welcome, if you haven’t already.

• Danielle Campanella began volunteering at the Free Clinic in September.
• Leah Robinowitz started helping out in the pharmacy area in October.

Holiday Schedule

Newsletter Suggestions  

            Do you have an idea for our next newsletter, or something you would like more information about?  Would you like to contribute some news or a brief message to your clinic teammates?  Please send your comments, suggestions, and/or news items via email halterb@upstate.edu or fax to the Clinical Campus (772-3536)