Success Stories
On The Road Again: A Tooth Taxi Update
by Mary Daly, Program Manager, Tooth Taxi
Update Number 34 | 09/08/09 | Community Transitional School
The best way to introduce you to the Community Transitional School is to share with you Steve Duin’s write-up in The Oregonian:
Homeless ... but never aimless
by Steve Duin, The Oregonian
Saturday, August 08, 2009, 10:00 AM
For a moment, she could be any other young mother in the neighborhood, out for a walk, reveling in the overcast. Then she tries to take a step.
She is swaying in the bike lane near the intersection of Northeast Cully and Killingsworth, fighting to remain afloat. You wonder at first if it's the heels, but she staggers forward again, her arms flailing for balance as she sizes up a parked car.
She is swatting at the hair on her shoulders, folding at the waist over an empty recycling bin, strung out and oblivious. You watch her for several forlorn minutes until she stumbles out onto Killingsworth, forcing an eastbound TriMet bus to swerve into the westbound lane.
That's when you flag down a Portland police squad car.
It's 8:50 a.m. Friday morning.
And you are standing by the chained-link fence that surrounds the Community Transitional School.
After bouncing around town for years -- old Washington High, St. Stephen Catholic Church, Mt. Tabor Presbyterian -- the school for Portland's homeless children has finally come to rest at a curious crossroads.
It's hard against The Arbor, a run-down trailer park on Killingsworth. It's across Cully from the Sugar Shack strip club and Video Visions, an adult theme park.
And Principal Cheryl Bickle could not care less.
"I've never stopped to think about it," Bickle said. "This neighborhood has been wonderful."
...Click here to finish the story
After seeing this article and trying to fill a void in our summer schedule, I swung by The Community Transitional school to see about a Tooth Taxi visit. Serving dual roles as Principal and teacher, Cheryl Bickle was on-site in early August unpacking supplies for the upcoming school year; and she was open to hosting the Tooth Taxi.
We pulled into the school the day after Labor Day where returning volunteer Dr. Kurt Ferré screened students, identifying patients for new volunteer Dr. Julie Dewey who joined us that day.
new Tooth Taxi volunteer Dr. Julie Dewey
We had a quick screening break as the students and school staff all gathered in the hallway to watch President Obama’s back-to-school speech that they had projected on the hallway wall. With a small school population we were able to screen all the kids and Dr. Ferré and Dr. Dewey were able to see students in the van for appointments.
Dr. Ferré, Cheryl Bickle and James at the screening station in the cafeteria
Returning volunteer Dr. Andrea Beltzner, pediatric dentist, joined us on Wednesday to treat the little tykes.
We finished our visit on Thursday with new volunteers Dr. Lorin Rice, Dr. Robert MacIlveen and his assistant Deborah Meeker. We were also joined by returning volunteer Dr. Megan Sapp.
new volunteer Dr. Loren Rice
Dr. Robert MacIlveen and his assistant Deborah Meeker
returning volunteer Dr. Megan Sapp
We were also able to treat a student from a Portland middle school that was in pain and without dental insurance who had been referred to us by the OEA Foundation. With OEA Choice Trust as one of our sponsors it is a nice connection that the Tooth Taxi can be an avenue to treat these kids when they are referred to the OEA Foundation by an OEA member.
From the kid gallery:
“My Mom doesn’t have any kind of hair and my dad’s a bald head.”
True confessions: “I eat too much candy.” Little girl to Dr. Ferré as she sat down to be screened.
“I can’t see with the glasses.” (can’t see the TV monitor)
And astonishment: “That’s a movie?”
I always say spending a week at the school we become community but this school truly was a community in itself. Three classrooms that cover Pre-K – 8th grade and a dedicated staff providing a positive experience and school home for these kids. 2 students I was escorting to the cafeteria for screening- the little girl offered to tie her classmates shoe while he told me about his teeth.
To learn more about the Community Transitional school visit their website: www.transitionalschool.org
Community Transitional School stats:
September 8 - September 10, 2009
- 55 students screened
- 20 students treated in the van
- $10,487 value of free dental services provided.
Summary:
Tooth Taxi, September 4, 2008 - September 10, 2009
- 4306 students screened
- 414 students received oral hygiene education in the classroom
- 1602 students treated in the van
- $1,012,229 value of free dental services provided.
Next week on the road:
Next week on the road: Riverside Elementary in Grants Pass
Regards, Mary