A Reflection on the Fishersville, VA 2022 Clinic
By Katherine Ladosci, Fishersville, VA CHG 2022 Co-Lead
Over time, I started to enjoy the ‘slightly confused with a twinge of concern’ faces that would often stare back at my team and me when we entered a meeting room or joined a Zoom call with a new potential community partner. “We are planning the first-ever Remote Area Medical clinic in Fishersville, Virginia,” I would say with bright eyes and an eager tone, hoping they could feel my passion for the organization without coming off overly zealous. My enjoyment came from a deep belief (well, conviction) that Fishersville would be a success. The 2022 Fishersville Remote Area Medical Clinic was planned and executed by a Community Host Group comprised of students and alumni from the University of Virginia. We are not health professionals or retired businesspeople; we are just a group of young adults with a passion for RAM who responded to a need for accessible healthcare.
Planning Fishersville was unlike anything any of us had done before. Our leadership team consisted of 10 incredible individuals who led three committees that helped us with promotions, hospitality, volunteer recruitment, and finances. These committee members were also students and part of the RAM@UVA Campus Chapter. Meeting each week, these members called hundreds of potential providers, researched every community organization in the Central Shenandoah region, and helped secure tens of thousands of dollars in donations and grants to provide free healthcare. As a leadership team, it was our job to harness their work and take the clinic from a few (notably large) documents to reality. Each late-night meeting, venue tour, and email draft we endured had an undertone of our greater intention in mind. Taking our members to volunteer at other RAM clinics and promoting Stan Brock’s words motivated us to work harder and do more. We listened and worked, regardless of what the voices around us were saying.
Life is full of opportunities for excuses, and the hard work that goes into planning a three-day event with over 500 volunteers is easy to excuse yourself from without the proper support and drive. We were willing to do whatever it took to bring accessible healthcare to Charlottesville, Augusta County, and the entire Central Shenandoah region, where people are often overlooked and underserved.
We were scared to host this clinic. We were scared of failure, of proving the naysayers right and disappointing our supporters. We were even afraid of what nightmares we might uncover about the realities of healthcare in our backyards. However, none of these fears could deter us from taking the leap and moving forward with the clinic because we had seen the incredible impact that RAM can make in communities. Being students may have raised a few eyebrows, but it also afforded us commodities like flexibility, time, and manpower that we might not have in a few years. Life is full of opportunities for excuses, and the hard work that goes into planning a three-day event with over 500 volunteers is easy to excuse yourself from without the proper support and drive. We were willing to do whatever it took to bring accessible healthcare to Charlottesville, Augusta County, and the entire Central Shenandoah region, where people are often overlooked and underserved. Thankfully, we did just that and provided an estimated $250,000 to more than 500 patients during the weekend.
When I reflect on my time as a part of the Fishersville Community Host Group, I do not think of the stressful phone calls, the what-if worries, or the seemingly endless number of meetings. Instead, I think of the excitement on potential patients’ faces when I told them we would be hosting a clinic for the first time close to their homes. I think of the community members who believed in us enough to donate their time or money. I think of our group’s immense teamwork as they worked together for almost two years to make this clinic happen. Fishersville was more than just a free healthcare event. Fishersville was a testament to ambition, opportunity, and spirit. I am so thankful to my team and every RAM@UVA chapter member who helped us. I am so thankful for the volunteers who gave up their weekends. I am so thankful for the Remote Area Medical staff who supported us. I am so thankful for the patients who took a chance and trusted us with their healthcare. I am so thankful that we are already planning a return to Fishersville for another clinic in the near future. And lastly, I am so thankful for those slightly confused faces that turned into proud smiles as they watched us succeed.
