SUCESS STORIES
On The Road Again: A Tooth Taxi Update
by Mary Daly, Program Manager, Tooth Taxi
Update Number 49 | 12/21/09 | White Bird Clinic
White Bird Clinic located in Eugene is a non-profit human service agency that has served the people of Lane County for over 30 years. The clinic provides a full menu of medical related services and a dental clinic. The Clinic received federal stimulus funds to remodel their dental operatories and they wanted to be able to continue providing emergent dental care while undergoing renovations. Enter the Tooth Taxi. Working with Kim Freuen, Dental Clinic Coordinator volunteers were amassed and James our assistant drove the Tooth Taxi to Eugene and oversaw operations (see att photo). For more information on White Bird Clinic visit their website: http://whitebirdclinic.org
Volunteers:
Dr. Jan Halvorson, Dr. Renee Watts and Dr. Michael Kelley. Volunteer dental assistants: Jonae Grosjean and Melissa Emerson.
Tooth Taxi volunteer Dr. Jan Halvorson
Tooth Taxi volunteer Dr. Renee Watts
Visitors:
Several staff from White Bird toured the Tooth Taxi and were very impressed with the beautiful clinic we have to work in. Dr. Halvorson’s daughter Sonja also visited.
Following is a note from Clinic Coordinator Kim Freuen:
Dear Mary, Thank you so much for allowing us to borrow the Tooth Taxi. We were able to help 31 people in 1.5 days. We had 2 volunteer docs Dr. Jan Halvorson and Dr. Renee Watts. The Tooth Taxi is beautiful. I love the brightness and great graphics on the outside! Our patients were grateful to enter the holiday season with less pain. Also, James is a wonderful young man. He was most helpful and we think he would make a great dentist someday! Thank you for loaning the Taxi and James.
Sincerely, Kim
Realities from the road:
Tooth pain – the attached photo shows the severity of the need for resources for emergent care. Proceed with caution if you’re at all squeamish.
Next week on the road:
Tooth Taxi service will resume the week of 1/11/2010 at Sacramento Elementary School in NE Portland (Parkrose School District).
Regards, Mary
