NORWICH—As The Greater Chenango Cares IRT readies for its upcoming event taking place at the Norwich High School from July 15-24, organizers are signaling that more volunteers are needed to work alongside military and community partners.
The 10 day initiative will offer no cost medical, dental, optometry and veterinary care for children and adults in our region.
According to Elizabeth Monaco, who serves as Executive Director at the Chenango United Way, the chief organizational entity tasked with managing the week long event, volunteers play a key role in making the Greater Chenango Cares IRT a success.
“We were so proud of the number of people who contributed their time and talents to help us with the IRT last summer,” said Monaco, “This year, we need volunteers to help with registering patients, moving them between clinics, helping with data entry, referrals and exit interviews and helping with parking and water distribution.”
Monaco and the CUW have long believed that the opportunity and value that the IRT brings to Chenango county couldn’t have happened at a better time. In Chenango County and its surrounding communities, an average of 38 percent of families are medically under-insured and more than 18 percent of adults do not have a regular health provider.
The Chenango County Health Department has expressed a need for more medical assistance to low income families and disabled populations, especially those who are under-insured, including many Chenango children. Many adults in our area also do not visit a dentist or an eye doctor on a regular basis.
In total, approximately 400 individual volunteers from across the region will be needed over the 10 days to fill volunteer shifts at this year’s Greater Chenango Cares event. To date, 300 of those slots have been filled leaving a void of some 100 additional helpers. Those volunteers will serve an estimated 2,000 individuals and pets in the various clinics over the 10 days of the event.
“At this point we’re as prepared as we can be with the exception of filling in these last volunteer slots,” said Monaco. “Last year’s even was just a complete success because of the pouring out of support the event saw from the community, we’re confident that we’ll see similar numbers this year.”
Since early June, appointments for dental and vision clinic services have began to trickle in. The event will likewise host walk-in services for basic no cost medical services such as sports and school physicals, nutrition counseling, blood pressure and diabetic screenings and medication consults will be available as well as no cost rabies vaccinations for pets. Some walk in appointments for vision and dental services will also be offered on a limited basis.
“We are so excited to be leading this event this year and helping to bring these important health services to our community again,” said Monaco. “Meeting the unmet health care needs of our communities is a growing concern and to be able to partner with so many other critical community resources is invaluable for our community. We are so grateful to everyone who is partnering with us to bring this to our community again. So many people will benefit from this awesome event.”
Those seeking volunteer opportunities are encouraged to visit volunteer.chenangouw.org to register and sign up online, or contact Vitoria Mitchell, Volunteer Coordinator at 607-334-8815.