Before the sun came up on May 17, 2019, a group of Blue Ridge Job Corps students were already on their way to making a difference in the community. The group of nine students, along with Business Community Liaison Jordan Loupe arrived at the Mountain Empire Airport in Rural Retreat, VA at 5:00 a.m. to volunteer with the Remote Area Medical (RAM) Clinic. According to ramusa.org, “RAM is a major nonprofit provider of free mobile clinic,” with the mission, “to prevent pain and alleviate suffering by providing free quality healthcare to those in need.” What better program for Blue Ridge students to get involved with to utilize skills learned during their career technical training? Student volunteers included Medical Office Support students Najah Muhammad, Daniska Franco, Roxana Alvarez, and Alyssa Wilson, Clinical Medical Assistant students Heavenly Ealey and Wendy Chicas, and Nursing Assistant students Toni Waller, Alysha Haley, and Domonique Settles.
The students’ task for the day was to register patients before they received medical care, taking their personal information, medical history, etc. At 6:00 a.m. the gates opened for over 150 families who had camped out the night before in order to receive a ticket to receive free medical, vision, and dental care. Slowly but surely, each and every person was registered, and were on their way to receiving care, thanks in large part to the students at Blue Ridge Job Corps, who helped the initial registration run so smoothly. As one patient exited after her visit, she stopped to say, “thank you for everything you do, I really appreciate this.”
Each student involved was grateful for the opportunity and glad they were able to help the patients at the RAM Clinic has a positive experience. Alyssa Wilson stated, “I really hope I am able to do more things like this in the future, this was a great experience.”
For more information on mobile clinics in your area, or to volunteer, please visit ramusa.org.