Remote Area Medical (RAM), a nonprofit organization that provides free pop-up clinics across the U.S., is asking for volunteers for a pop-up clinic they will be hosting in Willimantic, Conn. on March 8 and 9. The event, which will be held at Windham Middle School, will require volunteers to work as general support staff or medical, dental and vision professionals.
RAM asked for volunteers to help set up and take down the clinic on the morning of March 7 and the evening of March 9, respectively, to greet patients as they come into the clinic, to act as interpreters and more, according to a press release from RAM. The clinic will open at 6 a.m. and will run as long as necessary, with a cut-off at midnight.
Brad Sands, the clinic coordinator at RAM, participated in an interview with the Daily Campus. Sands talked more about what volunteers will be needed for.
“[RAM is] volunteer driven. Typically, during a clinic there’s only two to three staff members that are on site, everyone else is a volunteer. We have our core volunteers that are trained in our policies and procedures to work the areas, and then we’ll have our general support volunteers and our providers,” said Sands.
Sands clarified that one does not need to be a licensed medical professional in order to volunteer.
“You don’t have to be a licensed medical professional to volunteer at one of our clinics; we need people to help folks pick out glasses, we need people to do data entry for patient registration, people to guide patients to the correct areas so they know where they’re going,” added Sands.
Sands talked about the need for interpreters at these clinics.
“Something a lot of people may not think about is, we need interpreters, so if people are bilingual, we’d love for them to come out and volunteer to help interpret for the patients that come through,” said Sands.
According to Sands, RAM’s pop-up clinics provide a wide range of services, including dental, vision and medical, completely free of charge and without needing an ID to be shown. Sands talked about the specific services that the clinic in Willimantic will be providing.
“Willimantic will have dental, vision and medical,” said Sands. “All services will be available in dental as far as hygiene, extractions and fillings go. Medical will be general physicals, women’s health and then in vision we’ll be writing the prescriptions and making the glasses as well.”
Volunteers will be provided with breakfast, lunch and dinner, and will be expected to volunteer for both days, according to Sands.
Sands talked about the benefit that these free pop-up clinics give to local communities.
“There’s a lot of people in the country that don’t have the availability to get the care… These clinics kind of bridge that gap and help these people that are not able to get to the dentist,” said Sands. “Maybe they’ve been walking around for three years with a cavity and it’s been killing them or maybe they haven’t been able to see for the last couple of years or maybe they’ve never been to the doctor at all. These clinics are there to bridge that gap for those folks.”
Sands also talked about RAM’s anticipation for the event and how people can sign up to volunteer.
“We’re really excited to be coming back to Willimantic this year… we’ve got a great community host group, it’s going to be a wonderful clinic,” said Sands. “I highly encourage anyone who’s never volunteered or is thinking about volunteering to go ahead and go to www.RAMusa.org, look at us, register, volunteer, come out, and you’re going to love it, I promise.”
RAM is headquartered in east Tennessee with volunteers from across the U.S., going from “Miami to Alaska,” according to Sands. For more information about the organization and how to get involved, visit their website or call 865-579-1530.