Editorial - June 2003

Impressive volunteer initiative inspired gift

Published June 30, 2003

Lincoln County’s Helping Hands Health Clinic was inspired by a leadership in Lincoln County that had a great deal of faith and trust in the giving spirit of this community. From the beginning, this free clinic for the poor was a volunteer effort to help those on the lowest rungs of life. Few people were asked for money. Many were asked for their time and skills, particularly those in the medical community. The response was strong, as it often is in this community. The last bit of philanthropy on this project came from Lincolnton’s Jody Cronland, the widow of the late Dr. Murphy Cronland, who donated the use of the building that formerly served as her husband’s medical offices, a gesture honoring a man who was known to care for the least fortunate.

Such efforts explain why The Duke Endowment has announced a $100,000 donation for the next two years to make the clinic much more effective with an executive director and support staff. Duke’s vice president and director of the endowment’s health care division said as much: “The Helping Hands Clinic … has in a short period of time developed an impressive base of volunteer support, and that should help make it a valuable resource for the needy citizens of Lincoln County,” he said.”

Duke officials said the endowment selected the clinic for the grant because it has demonstrated the organization’s health care initiatives, including “finding efficient, compassionate and cost-effective ways to address chronic disease and long-term illness.”

The Duke Endowment, a private foundation, was established in 1924 by industrialist and philanthropist James B. Duke. Its goal is to assist people in North and South Carolina “by supporting selected programs of higher education, health care, children’s welfare and spiritual life.”

The endowment only gives money to schools, churches and hospitals. Since Lincoln Medical Center already supplies Helping Hands with physicians and staff, the hospital applied for the grant on the clinic’s behalf.

The leadership at LMC demonstrated a strong community spirit by carrying through with this application. It is helping itself to some degree, since the clinic will serve people who otherwise might wind up at the hospital emergency room where personnel are better utilized for emergency admissions that are often life and death situations.

Currently, Helping Hands, which has only been open since January, treats patients from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays, utilizing volunteers from the medical community. To qualify for care, patients must be Lincoln County residents, have no private health insurance and be ineligible for Medicaid or Medicare.

Many people were involved in this effort and all should be congratulated, including Board Chairman Harry Brogden and the other board members, Lincoln County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jerry Cochrane, Mike Owen of the Housing Authority, Lincolnton attorney Jeff Taylor, and especially the doctors and nurses who have selflessly volunteered their valuable time.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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