The skies were still pitch black as Business Community Liaison Mike Steele  and 6 students left the center at 4:30am with their sights set on  volunteering at Smyth County’s 2^nd  annual Remote Area Medical ( RAM) clinic.  The Ram is a non-profit volunteer led organization that provides free health care, dental, eye care, and technical/educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States. Students from the Blue Ridge Job Corps have played an important role in the past two RAM’s

On this day the students arrived early so they could work in the registration tent. Many patients of the RAM will have camped out for days leading up to the event. Volunteer registration began at 5am, and registration orientation started promptly at 5:30am. Gates opened at 6am, and over a time period of six hours, patients would enter the tent to be registered non-stop. The registration tent consisted of twenty laptop computers. Blue Ridge students used these laptops to collect information from the patients before sending them to the triage tents.

Brittany Chambers one of the students that volunteered said this in an email to her peers after the registration was over “So today I got to do an amazing volunteer opportunity. I got to volunteer at what is called the RAM clinic which basically provides free healthcare and services such as dental and vision (providing free glasses) at no cost. It was so rewarding knowing that I could do some good in the day in age”

In addition to helping out with registrations four Blue Ridge students that are in their final semester of the License Practical Nursing (LPN) program were also at the RAM bright and early. Working at the RAM counts as part of their required clinic hours. Blue Ridge LPN students worked the RAM from 6am-5pm, and then arrived the next morning to work again 6am-5pm. LPN student Candice Miller said “waking up early to provide this service to these people is completely worth it. I I would work 13 hours if they would let me. You can see the look anguish on these people faces, and they would not be here if they didn’t truly need it”

One by one Blue Ridge students made small difference in someone else’s life. Making the world a better place person by person, key stroke, by key stroke. It doesn’t end with the Smyth County.  Blue Ridge students will be at the Ram in Wise County Virginia on July 21, 2017, and Grundy Virginia on October 7, 2017. Because this is a calling that keep on going.